Franco Gottig, a young professional of Ternium in Argentina, represented the company during the 14th SteelChallenge World Championship organized by the WorldSteel Association, he won, along with nine other persons, the Regional Championship in November 2019.
Over 2000 people from 57 countries participated last year in the 14th SteelChallenge Regional Championship. They had 24 hours to produce a grade of steel that complied with the technical requirements at the lowest cost per ton by using Electric Arc Furnace and Secondary Metallurgy simulators. There were only ten finalists, among them was Franco Gottig, Quality Engineer at Ternium Argentina, winner of the industry category in the Americas region.
“We had a lot of preparation happening last week,” highlights Franco. He acknowledges the World Steel Association’s support: “They were always making sure that we had good access to tools and that we were well prepared and assisted for the competition.”
The final stage of the event was made virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. We used Zoom to make a live video conference to find the best solution for each region’s champions.
Franco Gottig, a young professional at Ternium, represented the company during the 14th SteelChallenge World Championship organized by the WorldSteel Association and won along with the other nine persons the Regional Championship in November 2019.
About the results of the experience, Gottig comments: “The challenge has some unforeseen issues that I knew how to handle but due to the short time window (2 hours of work), and the desire to optimize the cost of entry, a positive working result was not achieved.” And he ponders: “One can try, before aiming for optimal results, to solve things positively, to get a solution that works even if the cost is not optimal and after that try to optimize it. The South Korea representative achieved a very good result in little time. He set a very high bar to beat that made us take risks in quality or to push to the limit the specifications and costs, and I was not able to meet his costs.”
Each year, this competition represents an opportunity to bring young students and professionals into the industry, and to position it like a place with growth possibilities as well as with new technological challenges. Franco will continue participating as a coach of future participants in the short term. Just as he states: Competition is the right road to take for Ternium and the totality steel industry, betting on young students to fall in love with the world of steel.
The winners of the student and industrial category were: Huan Xu from the Science and Technology University of Chongqing in China and Keun Hak Kim from Posco in South Korea if you want to know the participants and get more information about the SteelChallenge click here.
The final step of the event took place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. We used the zoom to make a video conference and to be simultaneously working in the best solution with the champions of each region.