The steel industry has historically held a central place in the development of all modern industrial economies. Supporting the rise of East Asia in the postwar world, the rise of resource import-dependent steel industries in Japan, Korea and China has emerged alongside export-oriented mining industries in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India and South Africa, etc., and steel products exported to the rest of world. These processes formed the global production network of East Asia’s iron and steel industry. This talk will address its global environmental history from four aspects: The development of iron and steel industry in postwar East Asia; East Asia’s iron ore and coal import and the environmental impacts of resource extraction in the producing areas; environmental consequences of iron processing in East Asia; East Asia’s Steel product export and its recycling in the consuming areas.
