General Information and Economic Importance

Silicon is, in general, available in three different commercial forms  

The main con.sumer of ferrosilicon is the steel industry. Technical silicon is mainly utilized in the aluminum industry and the chemical industry. 

The demand for technical silicon in Western industrialized countries increased from 0.49 10 t/a in 1985, of which 0.34 10 t/a was utilized as an alloy component in the aluminum industry and the rest in the chemical industry for the manufacture of inorganic silicon compounds and ultrapure silicon, to 0.79 10 t/a in 1995, of which 0.46 10 t/a was utilized in the aluminum industry and 0.33 10 t/a in the chemical industry. 

Due to the energy intensive nature of silicon production, production plants are to be found at sites with cheap hydroelectric electricity (USA, Canada, Norway, Brazil, the former States of the USSR). 

Worldwide consumption increased ca. 5.5% annually in the period 1980 to 1995, the demand in the chemical industry increasing at an annual rate of ca. 8% and ca. 3.5% in the aluminum industry. 

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A study of the fiber industry is not complete without some knowledge of the characteristics of individual fibers. Since each is so different it is difficult to generalize or compare directly. This section presents a summary of each important fiber, including pertinent information on their manufacture, properties, uses, and current economics in a brief, informal and concise manner. 

The Black Sea region plays a very important role in the world economic system the condition and development of the economics and active involvement of the region in world economic relationships determine to a great extent the affairs in world politics as a whole. General information about the region s countries is given below in Table 1. 

Within the scope of clinical studies, valuable economic information on medical procedures can (and should) be obtained. Today, economic assessment assumes a special role in clinical studies, and because of its complex stratification and the general need for rationalization, e. g. in terms of the cost/benefit analysis, it is likely to become more and more important. The quality-adjusted life year (G.W. Torrance, 1987) should be included in the assessment, (s. p. 850)... 

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