1 For 1970, excludes blast furnace ferroalloys.

Source: American Iron and Steel Institute, Washington, DC,Annual Statistical Report (copyright). 1999 released July 2000.

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Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF)

A pear-shaped furnace, lined with refractory bricks, that refines molten iron from the blast furnace andscrap into steel. Up to 30% of the charge into the BOF can be scrap, with hot metal accounting for the rest.

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)

Steelmaking furnace where scrap is generally 100% of the charge. Heat is supplied from electricity that arcsfrom the graphite electrodes to the metal bath. Furnaces may be either an alternating current (AC) or directcurrent (DC). DC units consume less energy and fewer electrodes, but they are more expensive.

Open Hearth Furnace

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 Open Hearths, at one time the most abundantsteelmaking furnaces among integrated companies, have been replaced by the basic oxygen furnace.

Carbon Steel

Steel that has properties made up mostly of the element carbon and which relies on the carbon content forstructure. Most of the steel produced in the world is carbon steel.

Alloy Steel

An iron-based mixture is considered to be an alloy steel when manganese is greater than 1.65%, silicon over0.5%, copper above 0.6%, or other minimum quantities of alloying elements such as chromium, nickel,molybdenum, or tungsten are present. An enormous variety of distinct properties can be created for the steelby substituting these elements in the recipe.

Stainless Steel

The term for grades of steel that contain more than 10% chromium, with or without other alloying elements.Stainless steel resists corrosion, maintains its strength at high temperatures, and is easily maintained. Forthese reasons, it is used widely in items such as automotive and food processing products, as well as medicaland health equipment.

Pig Iron

The name for the melted iron produced in a blast furnace, containing a large quantity of carbon (above 1.5%).Named long ago when molten iron was poured through a trench in the ground to flow into shallow earthenholes, the arrangement looked like newborn pigs suckling. The central channel became known as the "sow,"and the molds were "pigs."

Ferroalloy

A metal product commonly used as a raw material feed in steelmaking, usually containing iron and othermetals, to aid various stages of the steelmaking process such as deoxidation, desulfurization, and addingstrength. Examples: ferrochrome, ferromanganese, and ferrosilicon.

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