With China becoming a major force in steel research and development, this book highlights the work of a group from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by the first four authors. This group has the ideal knowledge base for writing this updated book on heat-resistant steels. The fifth author, Sha, based in the UK, has been collaborating with the Chinese group since 2009 and is the lead or sole author of four research books, all published in English. The last book, Steels: from materials science to structural engineering, was published by Springer in 2013. Within two months of its publication, researchers at the University of Science and Technology Liaoning had requested translation of the book into Chinese. Springer obliged, and the Chinese version was published by the Metallurgical Industry Press, Beijing, in August 2014.

Sha has organized and completed the writing of the proposed book, though the main research was done in China.