STEEL MAKING DEFINITION
1) Alloy steels
Alloy steels have enhanced properties due to the larger proportion of elements such as manganese and silicon present in carbon
steels.
2) Annealing
The heat treatment process by which steel products are reheated to a suitable temperature in order to remove stresses from
previous processing and to soften them and/or improve their machinability and cold forming properties.
3) Apparent consumption
The sum of net industry shipments within a given country or region, plus its imports and minus its exports.
4) Bar
A finished steel product, commonly in flat, square, round or hexagonal shapes. Rolled from billets, bars are produced in two
major types: merchant and special.
5) Billet
A semi-finished steel product with a square cross section up to 155mm x 155mm. This product is either rolled or continuously
cast and is then transformed by rolling to obtain finished products like wire rod, merchant bars and other sections. The range of
semi-finished products above 155 mm x 155 mm are called blooms.
6) Blank
Steel sheet of high dimensional precision, in simple or complex form, sometimes multi-thickness, constituting principally
automobile body parts.
7) Blast furnace
A furnace used in integrated steelmaking in which coke and iron ore react together under a hot air flow to form liquid hot metal,
also called pig iron.
8) Bloom
See billet
9) Carbon steel
A type of steel that generally has only a small quantity of elements other than carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur and
phosphorus, so it has no significant alloying element.
10) Coal
The primary fuel used by integrated iron and steel producers.
11) Coated steels
Steel is coated by a heat process, or through electrolysis, with a layer to protect the metal base against corrosion. The most
commonly used coating material is zinc which can be applied either using the heat process (hot-dip galvanising) or using
electrolysis (electro-galvanising). An organic coating (paint, plastic) can also be deposited on the zinc layer.
12) Coil
A finished steel product such as sheet or strip which has been wound or coiled after rolling.
13) Coke
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A form of carbonised coal burned in blast furnaces to reduce iron ore pellets or other iron-bearing materials iron.
14) Coke ovens
Ovens where coke is produced. Coal is usually dropped into the ovens through openings in the roof, and heated by gas burning in
flues in the walls within the coke oven battery. After heating for about 18 hours, the end doors are removed and a ram pushes the
coke into a quenching car for cooling before delivery to the blast furnace.
15) Cold rolling
Passing a sheet or strip that has previously been hot rolled and picked through cold rolls (below the softening temperature of the
metal). Cold rolling makes a product that is thinner, smoother and stronger than can be made by hot rolling alone.
16) Continuous casting
A process for solidifying steel in the form of a continuous strand rather than individual ingots. Molten steel is poured into open-
bottomed, water-cooled moulds. As the molten steel passes through the mould, the outer shell solidifies.
17) CRC
Cold rolled coil (see cold rolling)
18) Crude steel
Steel in the first solid state after melting, suitable for further processing or for sale. Synonymous with raw steel.
19) Direct reduction
A group of processes for making iron from ore without exceeding the melting temperature. No blast furnace is needed.
20) Electric arc furnace
A furnace for scrap-based steelmaking. Once the furnace is charged and covered, graphite electrodes are lowered through holes in
the roof. The electric arc travelling between the electrodes and the metallic charge creates intense heat which melts the scrap.
Alloying elements can be added during the process.
21) Electrical steels
Specially manufactured cold rolled sheet and strip containing silicon, processed to develop definite magnetic characteristics for
use by the electrical industry.
22) Flat products
A type that is produced by rolls with smooth surfaces and ranges of dimension, varying in thickness. The two major flat steel
product categories are thin, flat products (between 1mm and 10mm in thickness) and plates (between 10mm and 200mm thick
and used for large welded pipes, ship building, construction, major works and boilers).
23) Galvanised steel
Produced when hot or cold rolled sheet or strip is coated with zinc, either by the hot-dipping or electrolytic deposition processes.
Zinc coating applied by the hot dip method is normally heavy enough to resist corrosion without additional protective coating.
Materials electronically galvanised are not used for corrosion-resistant applications without subsequent chemical treatment and
painting, except in mild corrosive conditions, due to the thin coating of zinc. Galvanise is a pure zinc coating. A special heat-
treating process converts the pure zinc coating to a zinc/iron alloy coating, and the product is known as Galvanneal.
24) HDG
Hot dip galvanised (see galvanised steel)
25) Hot and cold rolling mill
Hot-rolling mill: Equipment on which solidified steel preheated to a high temperature is continuously rolled between two rotating
cylinders.
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Cold rolling mill: Equipment that reduces the thickness of flat steel products by rolling the metal between alloy steel cylinders at
room temperature.
26) Hot metal
Molten iron produced in the blast furnace.
27) HRC
Hot rolled coil (see hot rolling)
28) Integrated steelmaker
A producer that converts iron ore into semi-finished or finished steel products. Traditionally, this process required coke ovens,
blast furnaces, steelmaking furnaces and rolling mills. A growing number of integrated mills use the direct reduction process to
produce sponge iron without coke ovens and blast furnaces.
29) Iron ore
The primary raw material in the manufacture of steel.
30) Ladle metallurgy
The process whereby conditions (temperature, pressure and chemistry) are controlled within the ladle of the steelmaking furnace
to improve productivity in preceding and subsequent steps, as well as the quality of the final product.
31) Limestone
Used by the steel industry to remove impurities from the iron made in blast furnaces. Limestone containing magnesium, called
dolomite, is also sometimes used in the purifying process.
32) Line pipe
Used for transportation of gas, oil or water generally in a pipeline or utility distribution system.
33) Long products
Long products are used in all industrial sectors, particularly in the construction and engineering industries. The group makes
heavy long products, light long products and wire-drawn products.
34) Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR)
LITFR is the number of injuries which has resulted in an employee or contractor being away from work at least one day after the
day it occurred, per million hours worked.
35) Mechanical tubing
Welded or seamless tubing produced in a large number of shapes to closer tolerances than other pipe.
36) Minimill
A small non-integrated or semi-integrated steel plant, generally based on electric arc furnace steelmaking. Minimills produce
rods, bars, small structural shapes and flat rolled products.
37) Net ton
See ton
38) Oil country tubular goods (OCTG)
Pipe used in wells in oil and gas industries, consisting of casing, tubing and drill pipe. Casing is the structural retainer for the
walls; tubing is used within casing oil wells to convey oil to ground level; drill pipe is used to transmit power to a rotary drilling
tool below ground level.
39) Open-hearth process
A process for making steel from molten iron and scrap. The open-hearth process has been replaced by the basic oxygen process
in most modern facilities.
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40) Pellets
An enriched form of iron ore shaped into small balls.
41) Pig Iron
The product that results from smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke
42) Plate
A flat rolled product from slabs or ingots of greater thickness than sheet or strip.
43) Real consumption
For any country or region, apparent consumption for such country or region adjusted for inventory changes or stockists and end
users.
44) Refining stand
A stage in the process of making crude steel, during which the crude steel is further refined (i.e. most residual impurities are
removed) and additions of other metals may be made before it is cast.
45) Rolling mill
Equipment that reduces and transforms the shape of semi-finished or intermediate steel products by passing the material through
a gap between rolls that is smaller than the entering materials.
46) Semi-finished products
Steel products such as billet, blooms and slabs. These products can be made by direct continuous casting of hot steel or by
pouring the liquid steel into ingots, which are then hot rolled into semi-finished products.
47) Sheet
A flat rolled product over 12 inches in width and of less thickness than plate.
48) Sheet piling
Rolled sections with interlocking joints (continuous throughout the entire length of the piece) on each edge to permit being driven
edge-to-edge to form continuous walls for retaining earth or water.
49) Sinter plant
A plant in which iron ore is crushed, homogenised and mixed with limestone and coke breeze and then cooked ("sintered") to
form sinter which is the main ferrous component of blast furnace burden.
50) Sintering
A process which combines ores too fine for efficient blast furnace use with flux stone. The mixture is heated to form clumps,
which allow better draft in the blast furnace.
51) Slab
A semi-finished steel product obtained by rolling ingots on a rolling mill or processed through a continuous caster and cut into
various lengths. The slab has a rectangular cross section and is used as a starting material in the production process of flat
products, i.e. hot rolled coils or plates.
52) Slag
A by-product, containing inert materials from the ‘burden’ (the materials put into the blast furnace at the beginning of the steel
making process), that is produced during the melting process.
53) Sponge iron
The product of the direct reduction process. Also known as direct reduced iron (DRI).
54) Stainless steels
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Stainless steels are distinguished from carbon steel by their chromium (ferritic steel) content and, in certain cases, nickel
(austenitic steel). Adding chromium to carbon steel makes it more rust and stain-resistant, and when nickel is added to chromium
stainless steel it enhances its mechanical properties, for example its density, heat capacity and strength.
55) Standard pipe
Used for low-pressure conveyance of air, steam, gas, water, oil or other fluids and for mechanical applications. Used primarily in
machinery, buildings, sprinkler systems, irrigation systems, and water wells rather than in pipelines or distribution systems.
56) Strip
Flat steel coil products, with widths of less than 600mm for hot rolled products and less than 500mm for cold rolled products.
The wider flat products are called wide strips.
57) Structural pipe and tubing
Welded or seamless pipe and tubing generally used for structural or load-bearing purposes above-ground by the construction
industry, as well as for structural members in ships, trucks, and farm equipment.
58) Structural shapes
Rolled flange sections, sections welded from plates, and special sections with at least one dimension of their cross-section three
inches or greater. Included are angles, beams, channels, tees and zeds.
59) Thin strip continuous casting
Casting technology that takes liquid steel and casts it into solid strip in one step, thereby eliminating the need for a continuous
slab caster and hot strip mill.
60) Tin coated steel
Cold rolled sheet, strip or plate coated with tin or chromium.
61) Ton (t)
1. A unit of weight in the US Customary System equal to 2,240 pounds. Also known as long ton.
2. A unit of weight in the US Customary System equal to 2,000 pounds. Also known as short ton. Also known as net ton.
62) Tonne (T)
A metric tonne, equivalent to 1,000 kilograms or 2,204.6 pounds or 1.1023 short ton.
63) Wire rods
Coiled bars of up to 18.5 millimetres in diameter, used mainly in the production of wire.
64) Wire: drawn and/or rolled
The broad range of products produced by cold reducing hot-rolled steel through a die, series of dies, or through rolls to improve
surface finish, dimensional accuracy and physical properties.
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