Activities & Events
Activities of ISSF Committees
ISSF has four standing committees. The committees consist of stainless steel experts from around the world. Most committee members are drawn from ISSF’s member companies, although external experts are sometimes called in to provide advice. The committee members meet 2 to 3 times a year.
Committee on Market Development
Promotion and market development have been the most important functions of ISSF since it was established in 1996. The cornerstones of ISSF’s market-development policy are knowledge and information. ISSF aims to grow the overall market for stainless steel and to promote the use of appropriate grades for individual applications. This goal is achieved through education (of both stainless specialists and the general public) and by promoting stainless steel and its potential applications to decision makers.
Committee on Health and Environment
Health concerns and environmental protection are some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. ISSF is committed to assess the environmental and health impact of the manufacture and use of stainless steel. This information is passed on to the stainless steel community worldwide so that ISSF members can deliver fact-based, coherent messages to local regulators, customers and project partners.
Climate Change is a very important part of environmental protection. ISSF is very active in this area together with worldsteel and the stainless steel industry’s most important raw material supplier organisations. The objective is to reduce emissions by higher process efficiency, more recycling and a growing usage of durable (no corrosion), high strength (low weight) stainless steels.
Committee on Economics and Statistics
ISSF is the voice of the world stainless steel industry, ensuring that its views are presented in a forceful, consistent and coordinated way to policymakers, the business and financial communities and the general public. Accurate and up-to-date information and statistics are essential tools to achieve this aim.
Through its Committee on Economics and Statistics, ISSF collects detailed economic and statistical data on the stainless steel sector. The information is disseminated to ISSF members, to the industry, and to the general public via media contacts around the world, the worldstainless.org website, and the worldstainless Extranet.
Committee on Long Products
The Long Products Committee focuses on product-specific issues. This includes market statistics and market development activities for long products. Both of these areas require long product specialists. The Long Products Committee cooperates with other ISSF committees for stainless steel or product-neutral issues (such as health and environment, general statistics and certain market sector analyses).
Annual Conference
The Annual Conference of ISSF is held each year, normally in May. The conference brings together the heads of the world's major stainless steel enterprises and national and regional associations. Approximately 90 chairmen, chief executive officers and other senior managers of ISSF member companies attend. The next annual conference, ISSF-15, will be held in Madrid in May 2011.
Previous conferences have been held in:
ISSF-1 Seoul, Korea 1997
ISSF-2 Madrid, Spain 1998
ISSF-3 Pittsburgh, USA 1999
ISSF-4 Yokohama, Japan 2000
ISSF-5 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2001
ISSF-6 Sun City, South Africa 2002
ISSF-7 Berlin, Germany 2003
ISSF-8 Seoul, Korea 2004
ISSF-9 Helsinki, Finland 2005
ISSF-10, Louisville, USA 2006
ISSF-11, Kyoto, Japan 2007
ISSF-12, Paris, France 2008
ISSF-13, Hong Kong 2009
ISSF-14, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2010