J. Construct. Steel Res. Vol.

46, Nos.
01998

l-3,

ELSEVIER

PII: s0143-974x(9Qooo17-0

pp. 392-395, paper number 22. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0143-974X/98 $19.00 + 0.00

Constructional Steelwork Developments in Romania: Present and Future Trends

Radu Bancila, Liviu Gadeanu and Dan Dubina

Technical University, Politehnica Timisoara, Str. Stadion 1, RO-1900 Timisoara, Romania Paper Number 22
Full paper on enclosed CD-ROM

Romania is one of the European countries where the steel industry started in the 18th century. In the second part of the 19th century the Austrian Railways STEG company developed in the western part of the country - Resita - the production of steel and introduced modem European technologies. A new relevant development was realised after the Second World War in the period of centralised economy when the output of industrial steel was 14 million tonnes/year. After the political changes in 1989 production dropped up to 6 million tonnes/year (Fig. 1). The reason was the loss of some traditional markets (COMECOM and Third Countries Area) and also the restructuring of the national economy. In order to integrate Romania into the European Union, the Romanian Government applied for a PHARE supported study concerning the restructuring policy in the field of the steelmaking industry. According to this study,
STEEL PRODUcIloN IN ROMANIA MnLToN!wEAR
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2

Oc----L
1960 l%S 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 199s 2ooo

Fig. 1. Steel production in Romania.

Constructional

Steelwork Developments

in Romania: Present and Future Trends

393

TABLE 1 Steel producers and steel production in Romania

Categ. Name Forecast 2002 (thousand tons/year) Capacity Production

Integrated steel works

Mini mill plants

1. Sidex - GALATI 2. Siderca - CALARASI 3. Siderurgica - HUNEDOARA TOTAL I 1. Cost - TARGOVISTE 2. Industria Sarmei CAMPIA TURZII 3. C.S. RESITA 4. Socomet OTELU-ROSU TOTAL II TOTAL I + TOTAL II

7.ooo 1700 1500 10 200 860 400 240 300 1800 12000

5,600
1 350 1200 8 150 700 250 170 230 1 350 9500

provided by Sofres Conseil France, until the year 2002 only three main producers will remain, with an estimated production of 9.5 million tonnes (Table 1 and Figure 2). The structure of the steel utilisation is as follows:
POPULATION 23,2Mill. SURFACFI237492Id UCRAINA

ROMANIA

BULGARIA

Fig. 2. Steel producers in Romania.

394

Radu Bancila et al

ZO-25% of total steel production can be estimated to be used by the constructional steel work industry ?? 20% export ?? 5560% for the machinery industry and other fields.
??

An important fact should be mentioned: starting with 1996 Romania is represented by the Technical University of Timisoara as a full member in the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork. In 1997 Romania won one of the ECCS Awards for Steel Construction. Until 1988 steel use in residential and non-residential buildings was limited; the main field of steel constructions was heavy industry. Since 1990 both non-residential and light industrial buildings have been made mainly in steel. Following the continuous development of the private branch of the Romanian economy, different light gauge steel buildings systems have been introduced in Romania, among them Astron, Butler and Lindab. The multi-storey steel buildings started to use modem structure types, welded and bolted and also European profiles (IPE, HEA, HEB). At present the Romanian industry does not produce such profiles; consequently they are either imported or welded. The price of usual steelwork production varies between 0.8-1~5 USD/kg, depending mainly on the quality of steel, the complexity of processing and the type of corrosion protection. The price structure is:
??

material = 40% energy, bank interest, taxes = 40% ?? wages = 20%

??

The paper presents some relevant examples of steel constructions erected in Romania in recent years (multi-storey steel concrete composite building, light gauge steel industrial building, a market place and a bridge). Another important trend is the adoption of the Eurocode framework. The Romanian Codes for Steel Structures valid at present, have been issued in the early 70s; these codes used the first order elastic analysis without considering global imperfections, but included European buckling curves. In 1997 the Ministry for Public Works and Territory Management (MLPAT) launched a national programme in order to elaborate new technical codes in Civil Engineering and to adopt the whole Eurocode complex. This programme is meant to be developed in the period 1997-2000, aiming to issue the Romanian Eurocode National Application Documents. The development trends in constructional steelwork industry in Romania are: - concerning the steel making industry: high strength and thermomechanical grades of steels ?? ecological measures in order to protect the environment
??

Constructional Steelwork Developments in Romania: Present and Future Trends

395

- concerning protection against corrosion

??

the introduction of metal and plastic coating

- concerning the main jelds of utilisation

??

development of light gauge steel buildings and housing ?? multi-storey steel buildings with bolted or welded beam-to-column ?? composite bridges for motorways

systems for industry, non-residential composite steel concrete floors and connections and steel bridges for railways.

0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

KEYWORDS

Steelwork, steel production, Romania, steelwork price, developments trends.