It uses intense water pressure to shape a car's steel body panels on half a stamping die.

FORBES: Water Wagons

Metal-forming technologies are used to shape hard industrial metals like steel, iron and aluminum into the components that are needed to make everything from computers and iPads to cars and trucks.

FORBES: China's Manufacturing Prowess

Now, at least, the rich world's steel firms are in better shape to weather another bout of oversupply.

ECONOMIST: Enjoy it while it lasts | The

It was only in 1951 that the European Union began to take shape through the Treaty of Paris and the European Steel and Coal Community.

CNN: Euro crisis opens old wounds for Greece, Germany

Raw rubber is heated and extruded on to the drum, followed by successive layers of steel wires and strips as the tyre takes shape.

ECONOMIST: Re-inventing the wheel

Aluminum can be more flexible than steel which can cause some issues when stamping the metal into shape, but those details are being worked out.

FORBES: Aluminum Usage In Cars To Grow -- Davenport & Co

There is some hope however, in the shape of a burgeoning renewable energy industry which utilises the skills of ex-steel and chemical workers.

BBC: Corus job cuts 'horrendous' for Teesside

With hydroforming, steel tubes are clamped into a mold and ballooned into the desired shape by 15 seconds of water under high pressure.

FORBES: Component king

Stylists Vanessa Traina, a fashion editor and daughter of Danielle Steel, and Melanie Huynh, a former assistant to past French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, help shape the look of his collections.

WSJ: Where Exotic Flair Meets American Practicality