Carbon and Iron Ore melted and mixed together with limestone produce a substance known as steel. High carbon steel artefacts and weapons dating back as far as 400 BC have been discovered in numerous geographic locations like India and Eastern Africa. However, modern steel production, as we know it, primarily began in the course of the 17th century in Europe.

Initially probably the most widespread way to produce steel was by combining charcoal, iron ore and lime making use of sufficient heat to liquefy the three. The result of this is called Pig Iron, which has high levels of carbon and is hard and brittle. This was then heated again and beaten against an anvil with a hammer to remove the high levels of carbon until a stronger and more flexible product was produced, now identified as mild steel. These days, air is forced through the liquid iron under extreme pressure, causing the carbon to attach itself to the oxygen and thus be removed from the iron as it passes through.

Contemporary buildings, auto manufacturing, electrical goods and many other industries rely heavily on steel as an integral component of the production process, and have done so for numerous hundreds of years. The factors for this are many, for example the capability to have the ability to bend and shape steel to suite practically any imaginable requirements that contemporary architectural trends may demand, or that it could be constructed on site to form the solid framework required to support the other great building necessity, concrete, means that it will continue to be an important component of the building and construction business for several years to come.

It is really obvious that as far as the building and construction industry is concerned, steel at present holds and will continue to hold its value as an essential element and influencing factor within the industry. This is important to point out here as existing statistics point towards a fall in overall steel production and consumption, especially in Japan and China. Some say the falling demand from China is a result of its government's order to decrease property speculation, thus leading to 40% of the steel factories closing down in their country. Specialists are saying that Japan's cyclic trend in GDP is currently at a low, and this along with a downward trend in steel production as well as the unfortunate recent earthquake disaster, are the combined trigger of the country's reduced consumption.

India is showing signs of filling the gap left by both China and Japan in terms of becoming a major consumer of steel due to its ever increasing role in the global manufacturing marketplace. In reality, the largest consumer of steel besides the USA is said to soon be India, and Brazil is progressing steadily towards becoming a major steel consumer as well. So it appears that demand for the use of steel on a global scale will continue to be strong. This only begs the question of whether or not worldwide steel production and supply will be able to meet the demand.