Modern processes ensure quality

Steel is produced, basically, from iron ore, coal and lime. The production of steel may be divided in four stages: load preparation, reduction, refining and lamination.

1. Load Preparation

A large part of the iron ore (fines) is agglomerated using lime and coke fines.
The resulting product is called sinter.
Coal is processed in the coke oven and becomes coke.

2. Reduction

These raw materials, now prepared, are loaded into the blast furnace.
Oxygen heated up to 1000º C is blown from the bottom of the blast furnace.
Coal, now in contact with the oxygen, produces heat that melts the metallic load and starts the process of reduction of the iron ore into liquid metal: pig iron.
Pig iron is a carbon steel alloy with a very high rate of carbon.

3. Refining

Oxygen or electric steelshops are used to turn liquid or solid pig iron and steel and iron scrap into liquid steel.
During this stage, part of the carbon contained in the pig iron is withdrawn along with impurities.
Most of the liquid steel is solidified in continuous teeming equipment to produce semi-finished goods, ingots and blooms.

4. Lamination

Semi-finished goods, ingots and blooms, are processed by equipment called laminators and transformed into a variety of steel products whose names depend on their shape and/or chemical composition.