A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. It is produced in a two-stage process. First, iron
ore is reduced or smelted with coke andlimestone in a blast furnace, producing molten iron which is
either cast into pig iron or carried to the next stage as molten iron. In the second stage, known
as steelmaking, impurities such as sulfur, phosphorus, and excess carbon are removed
and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium are added to produce
the exact steel required. Steel mills then turn molten steel into blooms, ingots, slabs and sheet
through casting, hot rolling and cold rolling.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the world's largest steel mill was the Barrow Hematite Steel
Company steelworkslocated in Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom. Today, the world's largest steel
mill is in Gwangyang, South Korea.[1][2]
Contents
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1 Integrated mill

2 Minimill

3 See also

4 References

5 Further reading

6 External links

Integrated mill[edit]

Plan of the Lackawanna Steel Plant ca. 1903, showing the various elements of an integrated steel mill.

Blast furnaces of Tinec Iron and Steel Works

Interior of a steel mill

An integrated steel mill has all the functions for primary steel production:

iron making (conversion of ore to liquid iron),

steelmaking (conversion of pig iron to liquid steel),

casting (solidification of the liquid steel),

roughing rolling/billet rolling (reducing size of blocks)

product rolling (finished shapes).

The principal raw materials for an integrated mill are iron ore, limestone, and coal (or coke). These
materials are charged in batches into a blast furnace where the iron compounds in the ore give up
excess oxygen and become liquid iron. At intervals of a few hours, the accumulated liquid iron is
tapped from the blast furnace and either cast into pig iron or directed to other vessels for further
steelmaking operations. Historically the Bessemer process was a major advancement in the
production of economical steel, but it has now been entirely replaced by other processes such as
the basic oxygen furnace.
Molten steel is cast into large blocks called "blooms". During the casting process various methods
are used, such as addition ofaluminum, so that impurities in the steel float to the surface where they
can be cut off the finished bloom.

Because of the energy cost and structural stress associated with heating and cooling a blast
furnace, typically these primary steelmaking vessels will operate on a continuous production
campaign of several years duration. Even during periods of low steel demand, it may not be feasible
to let the blast furnace grow cold, though some adjustment of the production rate is possible.
Integrated mills are large facilities that are typically only economical to build in 2,000,000 ton per
year annual capacity and up. Final products made by an integrated plant are usually large structural
sections, heavy plate, strip, wire rod, railway rails, and occasionally long products such
as bars and pipe.
A major environmental hazard associated with integrated steel mills is the pollution produced in the
manufacture of coke, which is an essential intermediate product in the reduction of iron ore in a blast
furnace.
Integrated mills may also adopt some of the processes used in mini-mills, such as arc furnaces and
direct casting, to reduce production costs.
World integrated steel production capacity is at or close to world demand, so competition between
suppliers results in only the most efficient producers remaining viable. However, due to the large
employment of integrated plants, often governments will financially assist an obsolescent facility
rather than take the risk of having thousands of workers thrown out of jobs. [not specific enough to verify]

Minimill[edit]

An ingot of steel entering a rolling mill

A minimill is traditionally a secondary steel producer; however, Nucor (one of the world's largest steel
producers), as well as one of its competitors, Commercial Metals Company (CMC) use minimills
exclusively. Usually it obtains most of its iron from scrap steel, recycled from used automobiles and
equipment or byproducts of manufacturing. Direct reduced iron (DRI) is sometimes used with scrap,
to help maintain desired chemistry of the steel, though usually DRI is too expensive to use as the
primary raw steelmaking material. A typical mini-mill will have an electric arc furnace for scrap
melting, a ladle furnace or vacuum furnace for precision control of chemistry, a strip or
billet continuous caster for converting molten steel to solid form, a reheat furnace and a rolling mill.

Originally the minimill concept was adapted to production of bar products only, such
as concrete reinforcing bar, flats, angles, channels, pipe, and light rails. Since the late 1980s,
successful introduction of the direct strip casting process has made minimill production of strip
feasible. Often a minimill will be constructed in an area with no other steel production, to take
advantage of local resources and lower-cost labour. Minimill plants may specialize, for example,
making coils of rod for wire-drawing use, or pipe, or in special sections for transportation and
agriculture.
Capacities of minimills vary; some plants may make as much as 3,000,000 tons per year, a typical
size is in the range 200,000 to 400,000 tons per year, and some old or specialty plants may make as
little as 50,000 tons per year of finished product. Nucor Corporation, for example, annually produces
around 9,100,000 tons of sheet steel from its four sheet mills, 6,700,000 tons of bar steel from its 10
bar mills and 2,100,000 tons of plate steel from its two plate mills.
Since the electric arc furnace can be easily started and stopped on a regular basis, minimills can
follow the market demand for their products easily, operating on 24 hour schedules when demand is
high and cutting back production when sales are lower.