Niobium For The Steel Industry

The steel industry is the largest user of niobium consumption. In the USA and China 75% to 80%, in Western Europe and Japan 90% of the niobium is used in steelmaking. In fact, the use of niobium began around 1925 as an additive in tool steel to partially replace the original tungsten. After decades of slow development, the production of niobium entered a period of adjustment and growth at the end of the 1950s with the large-scale mining of niobium by the Brazilian Metallurgical and Mining Company (CBMM) and the beginning of niobium's use in carbon steel. After the 1980s, as world steel production stabilized, niobium market sales gradually entered a period of stability.

Niobium is the leading microalloying element in steel. By adding only 0103% to 0105% of niobium to steel, the yield strength of steel can be increased by more than 30%. Niobium steel can also be strain-induced precipitation and control the cooling rate, to achieve a diffuse distribution of precipitation, in a wide range to adjust the toughness level of steel. Therefore, the addition of niobium can not only improve the strength of steel, but also improve the toughness of steel.

Niobium is mainly used in two main areas of steel production: first, high-strength low-alloy steel. Adding niobium in trace quantities can increase its strength to 350-600N mm2. This alloy steel is one of the main development directions of the world steel industry, and its growth rate is two times the growth rate of ordinary steel. The cost per unit of strength of this steel is 15% to 25% lower than that of ordinary steel. Niobium-containing high-strength low-alloy steel with high strength, good toughness, excellent welding performance, is used in a large number of automobiles, bridges, oil pipelines, natural gas pipelines, oil drilling, offshore oil drilling platforms, railroad tracks, civil engineering and construction of reinforcing bars and other aspects of the automotive industry and oil and gas pipelines is the most important market; the second is the niobium-containing high-strength high-alloy steel. By definition, this type of steel containing alloying elements totaling more than 7%, including stainless steel, high-speed tool steel, heat-resistant steel, ultra-high-strength steel, low-temperature steel, etc., most of the forgings, tubes, rods, plates, strips, and castings, etc., used in the form of gas turbine blades, ultra-high-heat tubes, aero-engines, lathe tools, etc.. At present, niobium-containing stainless steel electrodes are also an important application market for niobium. In addition, in recent years, the development of some new products in steel production and the application of new technologies may also broaden the application of niobium in steel. For example, the addition of niobium gapless impurity steel, i.e., IF steel; automotive exhaust systems with stainless steel; microalloys containing niobium forging steel; niobium added to the steel so that the application of high-temperature rolling technology becomes possible.