Conclusions
Recent capital expenditures for pollution control for the
U.S., Japanese, and German steel industries are shown in table
3A.2 of this appendix. In the future, pollution control
standards will increase. Estimates are that these standards
will increase steel production costs by about 3.8 percent in
the U. S. and about 8.6 percent in Japan. These increases would
amount to about $13 per metr ic net ton of steel shipped for the
U.S. and about $19 per metric ton of steel shipped for Japan
(in terms of 1975 dollars).
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Such figures are only rough estimates.
They are inherently
difficult to make, and they are subject to change from such
factors as modifications of standards, postponement of their
implementation. and future developrrients in pollution control
methods.
For the U.S., one effect of pollution control may be to
induce cutbacks and closings of some older and smaller plants.
The ADL study found substantial differenc,es.among plants in
pollution control equipment costs and operating costs. For 13
integrated plants smaller than 3 million tons of annual capacity,
ADL estimated that pollution control operating costs will vary,
from 8.8 to 48.5 percent of the total cost of shipments. In
contrast, for 20 integrated plants larger than 3 million tons
of annual capacity, the range of operating costs was 8.5 to
19.7 percent of the total cost of shipments (2, pp. VI-26-30).
