The iron and steel manufacturing process begins with mining raw materials, which must then be carefully processed to ensure quality finished products that meet specifications. There are more than 3,500 different grades of steel with many different physical, chemical, and environmental properties. Adding metals such as nickel, chromium, and tungsten produce a wide range of alloy steels such as stainless steel.

Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron and less than 2% carbon. Iron ore is, therefore, essential for the production of steel, which in turn is essential in maintaining a strong industrial base. 98% of mined iron ore is used to make steel.

As iron occurs only as iron oxides in the earth’s crust, the ores must be converted, or ‘reduced’, using carbon. The primary source of this carbon is coking coal. Coal is a key raw material in steel production. Coal is primarily used as a solid fuel to produce electricity and heat through combustion. Coke, made by carburising coal (i.e. heating in the absence of oxygen at high temperatures), is the primary reducing agent of iron ore. Coke reduces iron ore to molten iron saturated with carbon, called hot metal.

We produce Steel via two main methods: the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route and electric arc furnace (EAF) route. The BF-BOF route is used for 71% of steel produced, whilst the EAF route accounts for 29% of steel produced. The key difference between these routes is the material used to produce the steel and the plant configuration.