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Appendix VI: Steel Glossary

Agglomerating Processes
Fine particles of limestone (flux) and iron ore are difficult to handle and transport because of
dusting and decomposition. The powdery material is therefore usually processed into larger pieces.
The raw material’s properties determine the agglomerating technique that is used by mills.
• Sinter – Baked particles that stick together in roughly one-inch chunks. Normally used for iron
ore dust collected from the blast furnaces.
• Pellets – Iron ore or limestone particles are rolled into little balls in a balling drum and
hardened by heat.
• Briquettes – Small lumps formed by pressing material together. Hot briquetted iron (HBI) is a
concentrated iron ore substitute for scrap for use in electric arc furnaces.
Alloy Steel
An iron-based mixture is considered to be an alloy steel when one or more of the following limits
is exceeded: manganese contents is greater than 1.65%, silicon over 0.6%, copper above 0.6% or
other minimum quantities of alloying elements such as aluminium, chromium, cobalt, nickel,
molybdenum, vanadium or tungsten are present. An enormous variety of distinct properties can be
created for the steel by substituting these elements in the recipe to increase hardness, strength or
chemical resistance.

Alloying Element
Any metallic element added during the melting of steel or aluminum for the purpose of increasing
corrosion resistance, hardness or strength. The metals used most commonly as alloying elements
in stainless steel include chromium, nickel and molybdenum.

Annealing
A heat or thermal treatment process by which a previously cold-rolled coil of metal is made more
suitable for forming and bending. The sheet is heated to a designated temperature for a sufficient
amount of time and then cooled either in batches or in a continuous annealing process.

Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF)

A pear-shaped furnace lined with refractory bricks that refines molten iron from the blast furnace
and scrap into steel. Up to 30% of the charge into the BOF can be scrap, with hot metal accounting
for the rest. The BOF, which can refine a heat (batch) of steel in less than 45 minutes, replaced
open-hearth furnaces in the 1950s; the latter required five to six hours to process the metal. The
BOF's rapid operation, lower cost and ease of control give it a distinct advantage over previous
methods. Scrap is dumped into the furnace vessel, followed by the hot metal from the blast
furnace. A lance is lowered from above, through which blows a high-pressure stream of oxygen to
cause chemical reactions that separate impurities as fumes or slag. Once refined, the liquid steel
and slag are poured into separate containers.

Bars
A relatively long, straight, rigid piece of metal; long steel products rolled from billets into such
shapes as squares, rectangles, rounds, angles, channels, hexagons and tees. In steel, “merchant
bars” include rounds, flats, angles, squares and channels that are used by fabricators to
manufacture a wide variety of products such as furniture, stair railings and farm equipment.
Concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) is used to strengthen concrete in highways, bridges and buildings.

Billet
Rectangular semi-finished steel form (hot rolled from ingot or sheared from continuous caster's
output) destined for further processing into rod, bar, structural or tubing product. A billet is
different from a slab because of its outer dimensions; billets are normally 2–7 inches square, while
slabs are 30–80 inches wide and 2–10 inches thick. Both shapes are generally continually cast, but
they may differ greatly in their chemistry.

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Blast Furnace
A towering cylinder lined with heat-resistant (refractory) bricks, used by integrated steel mills to
smelt iron from its ore. Its name comes from the “blast” of hot air and gases forced up through the
iron ore, coke and limestone that load the furnace.

Bloom
Nearly square semi-finished steel product (hot rolled from ingot or sheared from continuous
caster's output) whose cross-section is more than 8 inches. Destined for further processing into
rod, bar or tubing product, but most commonly for such structural products as I-beams, H-beams
and sheet piling.

Carbon Steel
Ordinary steel made by melting iron or ferrous scrap with carbon, manganese, sulphur, silicon and
phosphorous.

Casing
Casing is the structural retainer for the walls of oil and gas wells, and accounts for 75% (by
weight) of OCTG shipments. Casing is used to prevent contamination of both the surrounding
water table and the well itself. Casing lasts the life of a well and is not usually removed when a
well is closed.

Coils
Sheet metal rolled from slab or ingot that has then been wound. Once rolled in a hot-strip mill, a
steel coil is more than one-quarter of a mile long. Coils are the most efficient way to store and
transport sheet metal.

Coke
Coke, a processed form of coal, is manufactured inside a coke oven by heating coal without
oxygen for 18 hours to drive off gases and impurities. Coke is the basic fuel consumed in blast
furnaces in the smelting of iron. Processed coke burns steadily inside and out without being
crushed by the weight of the iron ore in the blast furnace. Coke is preferred over metallurgical
coal, which burns sporadically and reduces into a sticky mass.
About 1,000 pounds of coke are needed to process a ton of pig iron, an amount that represents
more than 50% of an integrated steel mill’s total energy use.

Coke Oven Battery

A set of ovens that process coal into coke. Coke ovens are constructed in batteries of 10 to 100
ovens that are 20 feet tall, 40 feet long and less than 2 feet wide. Coke batteries, because of the
exhaust fumes emitted when coke is pushed from the ovens, are often the dirtiest area of a steel
mill complex.

Cold Reduction
Finishing mills roll cold coils of pickled hot-rolled metal to make the steel thinner, smoother and
stronger, by applying pressure, rather heat. Stands of rolls in a cold-reduction mill are set very
close together and press a sheet of steel from one-quarter of an inch thick into less than one-eighth
of an inch, while more than doubling its length.

Cold-Rolled Strip (Sheet)

Sheet steel that has been pickled and run through a cold reduction mill. Strip has a final product
width of approximately 12 inches, while sheet may be more than 80 inches wide. Cold-rolled sheet
is considerably thinner and stronger than hot-rolled sheet, so it will sell for a premium.

Cold Rolling
Rolling, hammering or stretching metal at a low temperature (often room temperature) to create a
permanent increase in the hardness and strength by making changes in the metallurgical structure
and shape of the metal.

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Continuous Casting
The “newest” technology in steelmaking; the conversion of molten metal directly from the furnace
into solid billets, blooms or slabs by passing the metal through a tundish (a shallow vessel that
looks like a bathtub) or similar funnel-like device and then into a water-cooled mold that
maintains the shape during cooling. As steel carefully flows from the tundish down into the water-
cooled copper mold of the caster, it solidifies into a ribbon of red-hot steel. At the bottom of the
caster, torches cut the continuously flowing steel to form slabs or blooms. Continuous casting
avoids the need for large, expensive mills for rolling ingots into slabs. Continuous cast slabs also
solidify in a few minutes versus several hours for an ingot. Because of this, the chemical
composition and mechanical properties are more uniform.

Contract Sales
Steel products committed to customers through price agreements extending 3–12 months. About
one-half of all flat-rolled steel is sold on this basis, primarily because the auto companies sign
agreements to cover at least one year's model. Price increases that the steel mills might announce
during the year do not generally affect the revenues from the contract side of the business.

Cut-To-Length
Process to uncoil sections of flat-rolled steel and cut them into a desired length. Product that is cut
to length is normally shipped flat-stacked.

Descaling
The process of removing scale from the surface of steel. Scale forms most readily when the steel is
hot by union oxygen with iron. Common methods are to (1) crack the scale by use of roughened
rolls and remove by a forceful water spray, or (2) throw salt, wet sand or wet burlap on the steel
just previous to its passage through the rolls.

Direct Reduced Iron (DRI)

Processed iron ore that is iron-rich enough to be used as a scrap substitute in electric furnace
steelmaking. As mini-mills expand their product abilities to sheet steel, they require much higher
grades of scrap to approach integrated mill quality. The impurities in the crushed iron ore are
driven off through the use of massive amounts of natural gas. While the result is 97% pure iron
(compared with blast furnace hot metal, which, because it is saturated with carbon, is only 93%
iron), DRI is only economically feasible in regions where natural gas is attractively priced.
Enabling the mini-mills to use iron ore without the blast furnace, DRI can serve as a low residual
raw material and alleviate the mini-mills' dependence on cleaner, higher-priced scrap.

Drill Pipe
Pipe used in the drilling of an oil or gas well. Drill pipe is the conduit between the wellhead motor
and the drill bit. Drilling mud is pumped down the center of the pipe during drilling, to lubricate
the drill bit and transmit the drilled core to the surface. Because of the high stress, torque and
temperature associated with well drilling, drill pipe is a seamless product.

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)

Steelmaking furnace where scrap is as much as 100% of the charge (i.e., the material loaded into
the smelting vessel). Heat is supplied from electricity that arcs from the graphite electrodes to the
metal bath. Furnaces may be powered either by alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC).

Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) Pipe

ERW pipe is made from strips of hot-rolled steel that are passed through forming rolls and welded.
While seamless pipe is traditionally stronger and more expensive than ERW pipe, ERW
technology is improving and the technique now accounts for approximately 48% of annual
tonnage shipments of oil country tubular goods.

Ferroalloy
A metal product commonly used as a raw material feed in steelmaking, usually containing iron
and other metals, to aid such various stages of the steelmaking process as deoxidation,

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desulphurization and the adding of strength. Examples: ferrochrome, ferromanganese and

ferrosilicon.

Ferrous
Related to iron; derived from the Latin “ferrum.” Ferrous metals are, therefore, iron-based metals.

Finishing Facilities
The portion of the steelmaking complex that processes semi-finished steel (slabs or billets) into
forms that can be used by others. Finishing operations can include rolling mills, pickle lines,
tandem mills, annealing facilities and temper mills.

Flat-Rolled Steel
Category of steel that includes sheet, strip and tin plate, among others.

Flux
An iron cleaning agent. Limestone and lime react with impurities within the metallic pool to form
a slag that floats to the top of the relatively heavier (and now more pure) liquid iron.

Forging
A metal part worked to predetermined shape by one or more processes such as hammering,
pressing or rolling.

Forming
Bending and forming plate or sheet products into customer-specified shapes and sizes with press
brakes.

Galvaneal Coating
Coatings on hot-dipped galvanized steels processed to convert the coating completely to zinc-iron
alloys; they are dull gray in appearance, have no spangle and, after proper preparation, are well
suited for painting.

Galvanized Steel
Steel coated with a thin layer of zinc to provide corrosion resistance (i.e., rustproofing).
Galvanizing methods:
1. Hot-dipped galvanizing – Consists of passing the continuous length of sheet, wire, rod or
shape through a molten bath, followed by an air stream “wipe” that controls the thickness of
the zinc finish.
2. Electro-galvanizing – Continuously zinc-coats an uncoiled sheet or unwound wire or rod
electrolytically. Galvanized sheet also is known in the market as “coated sheet.”
Hardening
Hardening refers to the degree to which steel will resist cutting, abrasion, penetration, bending and
stretching. The increased endurance provided by hardening makes steel suitable for additional
applications.
Hardening can be achieved through various methods, including (1) heat treatment, where the
properties of steel are altered by subjecting the steel to a series of temperature changes; and (2)
cold working, in which changes in the structure and shape of steel are achieved through rolling,
hammering or stretching the steel at a relatively low temperature.

Heat Treatment
Heat treatment is used to alter the properties of steel by subjecting it to a series of temperature
changes.
The steel is heated and then cooled as necessary to provide changes in the structural form that will
impart the desired characteristics. The time spent at each temperature and the rates of cooling have
a significant impact on the effect of the treatment.

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Heavy Structural Shapes

A general term given to rolled flanged sections where at least one dimension of their cross-
sections is 3 inches or greater. The category includes beams, channels, tees and zees if the depth
dimension is 3 inches or greater, and angles if the length of the leg is 3 inches or greater.

High-Carbon Steel
Steel with more than 0.3% carbon. The more carbon that is dissolved in the iron, the less formable
and the tougher the steel becomes. High-carbon steel’s hardness makes it suitable for plow blades,
shovels, bedsprings, cutting edges or other high-wear applications.

Hot Band (Hot-Rolled Steel)

A coil of steel rolled on a hot-strip mill (commonly referred to as hot-rolled steel).

Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI)

Direct reduced iron that has been processed into briquettes. Instead of using a blast furnace, the
oxygen is removed from the ore using natural gas and results in a substance that is 90%–92% iron.
Because DRI may spontaneously combust during transportation, HBI is preferred when the
metallic material must be stored or moved.

Hot End
The section of a steelmaking complex from the furnace up to, but not including, the hot-strip mill.

Hot Metal
The name for the molten iron produced in a blast furnace. It proceeds to the basic oxygen furnace
in molten form or is cast as pig iron.

Hot Mill
The rolling mill that reduces a hot slab into a coil of specified thickness; the processing is done at
a relatively high temperature (when the steel is still “red”).

Hot Roll
Product that is sold in its “as produced state” off the hot mill with no further reduction or
processing steps aside from being pickled and oiled (if specified).

Hot-Strip Mill
A rolling mill of several stands of rolls that converts slabs into hot-rolled coils. The hot-strip mill
squeezes slabs, which can range in thickness from 2 to 10 inches, depending on the type of
continuous caster, between horizontal rolls with a progressively smaller space between them
(while vertical rolls govern the width) to produce a coil of flat-rolled steel about a quarter of an
inch in thickness and a quarter of a mile in length.

Ingot
A form of semi-finished metal (created by pouring liquid metal into molds for solidification
during cooling). Ingot then is rolled or forged into other shapes. Note that steel ingots weigh as
much as 30 tons.

Integrated Mills
These facilities make steel by processing iron ore and other raw materials in blast furnaces.
Technically, only the hot end differentiates integrated mills from mini-mills. However, the
differing technological approaches to molten steel imply different scale efficiencies and, therefore,
separate management styles, labour relations and product markets. Nearly all domestic integrated
mills specialize in flat-rolled steel or plate.

Iron Ore
Mineral containing enough iron to be a commercially viable source of the element for use in
steelmaking. Except for fragments of meteorites found on earth, iron is not a free element; instead,
it is trapped in the earth’s crust in its oxidized form.

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Ladle
A “bucket” lined with refractory (heat resistant) bricks, used to transport molten steel from process
to process in a steel plant.

Ladle Metallurgy Furnace (LMF)

An intermediate steel processing unit that further refines the chemistry and temperature of molten
steel while it is still in the ladle. The ladle metallurgy step comes after the steel is melted and
refined in the electric arc or basic oxygen furnace, but before the steel is sent to the continuous
caster.

Lance
A long metallic tube through which oxygen is blown under high pressure and high velocity into a
vessel containing a bath of hot metal, steel scrap and fluxes to produce steel.

Lead-Time
Delivery time for an item of inventory to be moved from a source location to a destination via a
specific route. Detail is specific to the level of the location. Also the time to produce a customer’s
order from order placement to shipment.

Line Pipe
Pipe used in the surface transmission of oil, natural gas and other fluids.

Long Products
Classification of steel products that includes bar, rod and structural products, which are “long”
rather than “flat.”

Low-Carbon Steel
Steel with less than 0.005% carbon is more ductile (malleable). It is capable of being drawn out or
rolled thin for use in automotive body applications. Carbon is removed from the steel bath through
vacuum degassing.

Machining
Refers to performing multiple processes to a piece of metal to produce a customer-specified
component part.

Mechanical Properties
Those properties of a material that reveal the elastic and inelastic reaction when force is applied,
or that involve the relationship between stress and strain; for example, the modulus of elasticity,
tensile strength and fatigue limit. These properties have often been designated as “physical
properties,” but the term “mechanical properties” is much to be preferred.

Merchant Bar
A group of commodity steel shapes that consists of rounds, squares, flats, strips, angles and
channels, which fabricators, steel service centers and manufacturers cut, bend and shape into
products.

Metric Ton (MT)

A tonne or metric ton, sometimes referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of mass equal to
1,000 kilograms or 2,204.6226 pounds.

Mini-Mills
Another name for electric-arc steelmaking firms; steel mills that melt scrap metal to produce
commodity products. Although the mini-mills are subject to the same steel processing
requirements after the caster as the integrated steel companies, they differ greatly with regard to
their minimum efficient size, labour relations, product markets and management style.

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Molybdenum (MO)
A silvery-gray metal used as an alloy to strengthen steel and make it less susceptible to rust and
corrosion. Key alloying element for some classes of stainless steel; in the presence of chromium,
molybdenum enhances the corrosion resistance of stainless steel.

Months Of Inventory
Ratio of ending inventory to average monthly sales over a period of time.

No. 1 Heavy Melt

Obsolete steel scrap grade, at least one-quarter inch in thickness and in sections no larger than 5
feet by 2 feet. Much of the metal comes from demolished buildings, truck frames and heavy duty
springs. Mini-mills are primary consumers of No. 1 heavy scrap.

Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG)

Label applied to the pipe products used by petroleum exploration customers. OCTG includes
casing, drill pipe and oil well tubing, which, depending on their use, may be formed through
welded or seamless processes.

Open Hearth Furnace

A broad, shallow hearth to refine pig iron and scrap into steel. Heat is supplied from a large,
luminous flame over the surface, and the refining takes seven to nine hours. Open Hearths, at one
time the most abundant steelmaking furnaces among integrated companies, have been replaced by
the basic oxygen furnace.

Pellets
See Agglomerating Process.

Pickling
Pickling refers to the process of cleaning a steel coil through a series of hydrochloric acid baths
that remove the oxides (rust), dirt and oil so that further work can be done to the metal.

Pig Iron
Initial post-smelting casting of lead or iron. Named long ago when molten metal was poured
through a trench in the ground to flow into shallow earthen holes; the arrangement looked like
newborn pigs suckling. The central channel became known as the “sow,” and the molds were
“pigs.”

Pipe
Technically, a thick-walled tube used to transport fluids or gases. In the steel lexicon, “pipe” and
“tube” often are used interchangeably, with a given label applied primarily as a matter of historical
use.

Plate
A smooth, flat, relatively thick (from 3/16-inch to more than one foot) mass of metal with a width
of more than 8 inches, often sheared into individual pieces but also rolled into coils.

Pulverized Coal Injection System (PCI)

A blast furnace enhancement to reduce an integrated mill’s reliance on coke (because of
environmental problems with its production). Up to 30% of the coke charged into the blast furnace
can be replaced by this talcum-like coal powder, which is injected through nozzles at the bottom
of the furnace.

Reducing Agent
Either natural gas or coal can be used to remove the oxygen from iron ore in order to produce a
scrap substitute. In gas-based processes, the iron ore is heated in a vessel as reformed natural gas
passes through. In coal-based processes, iron ore is combined with gasified or ground coal and
heated. The oxygen in the ore combines with carbon and hydrogen in the gas or coal, producing
reduced, or metallic, iron.

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Refractory Brick
Heat-resistant brick. Because its melting point is well above the operating temperatures of the
process, refractory brick lines most steelmaking vessels that come in contact with molten metal,
like the walls of the blast furnace, sides of the ladles and inside of the BOF.

Reinforcing Bar (Rebar)

Also known as “concrete reinforcing bar” or “rebar”; a commodity-grade steel used to strengthen
concrete in highway and building construction.

Reline
The process of replacing the refractory lining of a liquid steel vessel. Once it wears out, the brick
lining of a furnace must be cooled, stripped and replaced. This maintenance can be significant,
because a blast furnace reline may require up to three months to complete.

Rod
Round, thin, semi-finished steel length that is rolled from a billet and coiled for further processing.
Rod is commonly drawn into wire products or used to make bolts and nails. Rod trains (rolling
facilities) can run as fast as 20,000 feet per minute.

Rolling Mill
1. Any of the mills in which metal undergoes a rolling process. These include the slabbing mill,
hot roll mills, cold roll mills, SR mills and DR mills.
2. Any operating unit that reduces gauge by application of loads through revolving cylindrical
rolls; operation can be hot or cold. The elevated temperature rolling mill is the hot mill and is
capable of reducing the gauge of a slab 92%–99%.
Scale
The oxide of iron that forms on the surface of steel after heating.

Scrap (Ferrous)
Ferrous (iron-containing) material that generally is remelted and recast into new steel. Integrated
steel mills use scrap for up to 25% of their basic oxygen furnace charge; 100% of the mini-mills’
raw material for their electric furnaces generally is scrap.
• Home scrap – Waste steel that is generated from within the steel mill, through edge trimming
and rejects. It is normally sent directly back to the furnace
• Prompt (industrial) scrap – Excess steel that is trimmed by the auto and appliance stampers
and auctioned to scrap buyers as factory bundles. This is a high-quality scrap as the result of its
low residual content and consistent chemistry.
• Obsolete scrap – Iron-bearing items such as old automobiles; household appliances; farm,
office and industrial equipment; ships and railroad cars; and buildings and bridges that have
completed their useful life that can be recovered from the junkyard and re-melted. The residual
impurity of such scrap normally relegates obsolete scrap to the mini-mills (see No. 1 Heavy
Melt).
Scrap Substitute
Raw material that can be charged in place of scrap in electric arc furnaces and basic oxygen
furnaces. Scrap substitutes include, among others, DRI, HBI, iron carbide and pig iron.

Seamless Pipe
Tubular product made from a solid billet, which is heated, then rotated under extreme pressure.
This rotational pressure creates an opening in the center of the billet, which is then shaped by a
mandrel to form the pipe or tube.

Semi-Finished Steel
Steel shapes – for example, blooms, billets or slabs –that are later rolled into finished products
such as beams, bars or sheet.

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Service Center
A catchall name for an operation that buys metal, warehouses it, often processes it in some way
and then sells it in a slightly different form or amount from what was purchased from the
producing mills.

Sheet Steel
Thin, flat-rolled steel. Coiled sheet steel accounts for nearly one-half of all steel shipped
domestically and is created in a hot-strip mill by rolling a cast slab flat while maintaining the side
dimensions. The malleable steel lengthens to several hundred feet as it is squeezed by the rolling
mill. The most common differences among steel bars, strip, plate and sheet are merely their
physical dimensions of width and gauge (thickness).

Shredded Scrap
Fist-sized, homogenous pieces of old automobile hulks. After cars are sent through a shredder, the
recyclable steel is separated by magnets. Mini-mills consume shredded scrap in their electric arc
furnace operations.

Sintering
A process that combines iron-bearing particles, once they have been recovered from
environmental control filters, into small pellets. Previously, these materials were too fine to
withstand the air currents of the smelting process and were thrown away. The iron is now
conserved because the chunks can be charged into the blast furnace (see Agglomerating
Processes).

Skelp
Steel that is the entry material to a pipe mill. It resembles hot-rolled strip, but its properties allow
for the severe forming and welding operations required for pipe production.

Slab
The most common type of semi-finished metal. In steel, semi-finished product (hot rolled from
ingot or sheared from continuous caster's output) destined for further processing into strip, sheet,
plate or welded pipe product; in zinc, the primary metal casting to be rolled or forged into other
shapes.

Slag
The impurities in a molten pool of iron. Flux such as limestone may be added to foster the
congregation of undesired elements into a slag. Because slag is lighter than iron, it will float on
top of the pool, where it can be skimmed.

Special Bar Quality (SBQ)

Arcane terminology used to describe a wide variety of higher-quality carbon and alloy bars that
are used in the forging, machining and cold-drawing industries for the production of automotive
parts, hand tools, electric motor shafts and valves. SBQ steel bars generally contain more alloys
than merchant (commodity) grades of steel bars and are made with more precise dimensions and
chemistry.

Specialty Tube
Refers to a wide variety of high-quality, custom-made tubular products requiring critical
tolerances, precise dimensional control and special metallurgical properties. Specialty tubing is
used in the manufacture of automotive, construction and agricultural equipment, and in industrial
applications such as hydraulic cylinders, machine parts and printing rollers. Because of the range
of industrial applications, the market typically follows general economic conditions.

Steel Intensity
The amount of steel used per unit of gross domestic product. Intensity reflects the secular demand
for steel, as opposed to cyclical demand. The amount of steel used in vehicles and the popularity
of alternative materials affect the intensity, or how much steel is needed per unit produced. The
state of the economy, however, determines the number of units.

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Steel-Intensive Products
Consumer products such as automobiles and appliances that, because so much of their weight is
from steel, exhibit a high demand correlation with steel.

Strip
Thin, flat steel that resembles hot-rolled sheet, although it is normally narrower (up to 12 inches
wide) and produced to more closely controlled thicknesses. Strip may also be cut from steel sheet
by a slitting machine (see Sheet Steel).

Structurals
Steel product group that includes I-beams, H-beams, wide-flange beams and sheet piling.

Tempering
Re-heating a quench-hardened or normalized ferrous alloy to a temperature below the
transformation range and then cooling at any rate desired. In heat treatment, re-heating hardened
steel to some temperature below the A1 temperature for the purpose of decreasing hardness and/or
increasing toughness.

Tin Mill
Continuous tin-plating facility to produce tin mill steel sheet to be used in food and beverage cans
and other containers.

Tin/Chrome Plating
A plating process whereby the molecules from the positively charged tin or chromium anode
attach to the negatively charged sheet steel. The thickness of the coating is readily controlled
through regulation of the voltage and speed of the sheet through the plating area.

Tin Plate
Sheet steel that has been coated on both sides with a very thin coating of commercial pure tin by
an electro-deposition process, in which the steel is made to be the cathode (negative electrode) in
an electrolytic bath containing a decomposable tin salt.

Ton
Unit of measurement for steel scrap and iron ore.
• Long (net) ton or gross ton – 2,240 pounds.
• Short (net) ton – 2,000 pounds. Normal unit of statistical raw material input and steel output in
the U.S.
• Metric ton – 1,000 kilograms. 2,204.6 pounds or 1.102 short tons.
Tubing
When referring to OCTG, tubing is a separate pipe used within the casing to conduct the oil or gas
to the surface. Depending on conditions and well life, tubing may have to be replaced during the
operational life of a well.

Vacuum Degassing
An advanced steel refining facility that removes oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen under low
pressures (in a vacuum) to produce ultra-low-carbon steel for demanding electrical and automotive
applications. Normally performed in the ladle, the removal of dissolved gases results in cleaner,
higher-quality, purer steel (see Ladle Metallurgy).

Yield
The ratio of the quantity of finished shipments to the total raw steel produced, adjusted for
changes in inventory and any slabs that are purchased from outside.
Source: Purchasing Magazine, AISI, Kalyani Carpenter, Reliance Steel, BlueScope, Alcoa and Weirton Steel, RBC
Capital Markets Research

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