steelChallenge-15 World Champions
13 April 2021 | Brussels, Belgium. The World Steel Association (worldsteel) today announced the new World Champions of the 15th steelChallenge. Xiaowei Shi from HBIS Group in China won in the industry category and Darley da Silva Lima from Universidade Federal do Ceará in Brazil won in the student category.
The World Championship of the 15th steelChallenge took place online on 12 April 2021. 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 secondary steelmaking and continuous casting courses in a combined simulation.
Scott Chubbs, Director, steeluniversity for worldsteel, said, “Congratulations to the World Champions and all of the finalists for a tremendous competiton. The work they undertook to be at the top of the competition was evident through their steelmaking solutions. I believe we witnessed future industry leaders conquer steelChallenge-15.”
The 2021 World Champion in the industry category, Xiaowei Shi said, “The challenge was really hard and I’m delighted to be the industry World Champion. steelChallenge is the highest level and most authoritative competition in the steel industry. It’s a great honour for me to participate in this competition.”
Darley da Silva Lima, the World Champion in the student category for 2021, said, “I’m very happy to be the student World Champion. It was an incredible opportunity to improve my knowledge about steelmaking and meet people around the world. I enjoyed steelChallenge and it will be helpful for working in the steel industry.”
New this year, all registered participants received access to the Secondary Steelmaking and Continuous Casting courses, including e-learning, 3D interactive models and simulators. Registered participants completing the Secondary Steelmaking course and the Continuous Casting course received completion certificates for each course. Also, participants successfully completing a simulation run during steelChallenge-15 received a competition certificate.
World Championship Finalists – Industry Category
| Person | Region | Affiliation | Country |
| Alexander Nesmeev | Europe and Africa | TMK | Russia |
| Bruno Galdino Sousa | Americas | Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém | Brazil |
| Uday Kumar Bhakat | Asia – West | Tata Steel Limited | India |
| Xiaowei Shi (晓伟 石) | Asia – North | HBIS Group | China |
| Jungho Choi | Asia – East and Oceania | POSCO | South Korea |
World Championship Finalists – Student Category
| Person | Region | Affiliation | Country |
| Andre Massaccesi Guimaraes | Europe and Africa | University of Westminster | United Kingdom |
| Darley da Silva Lima | Americas | Universidade Federal do Ceará | Brazil |
| Abdelrahman Hosny Gomma | Asia – West | Abu Dhabi Univeristy | United Arab Emirates |
| Zhihao Zheng | Asia – North | Wuhan University of Science and Technology | China |
| Kwon Ik Hwan | Asia – East and Oceania | Dong-A University | South Korea |
steelChallenge15 is generously sponsored by the following companies:
