worldsteel announces the world champions of steelChallenge-14
Brussels, 22 April 2020 – The World Steel Association (worldsteel) today announced the new world champions of the 14th steelChallenge. Keun Hak Kim from Posco in South Korea won in the industry category and Huan Xu from Chongqing University of Science and Technology in China won in the student category.
The world championship of the 14th steelChallenge took place online on 21 April 2020. Originally scheduled to take place in London, UK, the competition took place remotely to follow social distancing guidelines of health authorities around the world.
The 5 winners of the regional championship from each of the industry and student categories competed for the global title. The task was to produce a specific engineering steel grade at the lowest cost using steeluniversity’s Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking and Secondary Steelmaking simulators.
Scott Chubbs, Director steeluniversity for worldsteel, said, “This World Championship presented a new challenge as we had to change plans due to COVID-19. We couldn’t meet in London, so we moved the competition online. The steeluniversity team, the finalists, the faculty advisors and the sponsors were all very supportive. We rethought how we did the championship, and this year, for the first time, we invited people from around the world to view the competition and award ceremony via webinar”.
The 2020 World Champion in the industry category, Keun Hak Kim said, “steelChallenge is a great opportunity for young industry professionals like me to show our commitment and potential to our companies and to the industry in general. It will be a great advantage to my development. This is not the first time I have entered the competition, so I’m delighted to finally realise my ambition of becoming World Champion”.
Huan Xu, the World Champion in the student category for 2020 said, “I’m so happy to be the student World Champion. I have met other students and professionals from around the world through steelChallenge, so it has really expanded my horizons. It has also been a great personal challenge. I am very proud to have participated”.
The World Champions are:
| Student Category | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Affiliation | Country | |
| Huan Xu | Chongqing University of Science and Technology | China | |
| Industry Category | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Affiliation | Country | |
| Keun Hak Kim | Posco | South Korea | |
The World Championship Finalists are:
| Student Category | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Name | Affiliation | Country |
| Europe and Africa | Emerson Edilson BARROS DE SOUZA | Universidade Federal do Ceara | France 1 |
| Americas | Mateus NUNES DE OLIVEIRA | Universidade Federal do Ceara | Brazil |
| Asia – West | Aditya LARA | Shavak Nanavati Technical Institute | India |
| Asia – North | Huan XU – 欢 徐 | Chongqing University of Science & Technology | China |
| Asia – East and Oceania | Lee Yun SEONG | Dong-A University | South Korea |
| Industry Category | |||
| Region | Name | Affiliation | Country |
| Europe and Africa | Pietro De Seta COSENTINO | ArcelorMittal | France |
| Americas | Franco Andres GOTTIG | Ternium | Argentina |
| Asia – West | Sumit KUMAR PUHAN | Tata Steel Limited | India |
| Asia – North | Jian ZHANG – 剑 张 | HBIS Group Co., Ltd. | China |
| Asia – East and Oceania | Keun Hak KIM | POSCO | South Korea |
1 The rules of steelChallenge-14 state a person should compete in the region they are resident at the time of the Regional Championship. The student winner for Europe and Africa is a student of a university in Brazil, but resident in Europe at the time of the Regional Championship while on a internship in France.