Active metal: Metal surface has lost its ability to resist corrosion (the passive state) under the

prevailing conditions.
Alloy steel: Alloy steels have enhanced properties due to the larger proportion of elements such as
manganese and silicon present in carbon steels.
Annealing: The heat treatment process by which steel products are reheated to a suitable
temperature in order to remove stresses from previous processing and to soften them and/or
improve their machinability and cold forming properties.
Apparent consumption: The sum of net industry shipments within a given country or region, plus
its imports and minus its exports.
Austenite: The steel with the smallest building block of atomic structure of ‚face centred cubic‘ (fcc)
ie one atom at the eight corners of a cube and one in the centre of each of the six faces. Austenitic
stainless steels are characteristically non-magnetic while this improved the weldability, formability
and low temperature toughness.
Austenitising: The hardening / strengthening heat treatment of martensitic stainless steels.
Normally done by the tempering treatment after cooling down.

Bar: A finished steel product, commonly in flat, square, round or hexagonal shapes, rolled from
billets.
Billet: A semi-finished steel product with a square cross section up to 155mm x 155mm. This
product is either rolled or continuously cast and is then transformed by rolling to obtain finished
products like wire rod, merchant bars and other sections. The range of semi-finished products above
155 mm x 155 mm are called blooms.
Blank: Steel sheet of high dimensional precision, in simple or complex form, sometimes multi-
thickness, constituting principally automobile body parts.
Blast furnace: A furnace used in integrated steelmaking in which coke and iron ore react together
under a hot air flow to form liquid hot metal, also called pig iron.
Blast furnace (BF) Productivity: The hot metal produced (in ton), per cubic meter of blast furnace
volume, per day (T/cubic met/day).
Bloom: Semi-finished product, square (can be rectangular) section of cross sectional size
exceeding 5”x5” (125mm X 125mm).
Bright Annealing: An annealing process was done to prevent surface tarnish or oxidation.
Carbon steel: A type of steel that generally has only a small quantity of elements other than
carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus, so it has no significant alloying element.
Cathodic protection: It is one of the methods to increase the metal surface’s corrosion resistance
ability.
Chlorides (halides): It formed from chlorine (fluorine, bromine, iodine) atoms. This can be the
reason why localised attack mechanisms such as crevice, pitting and stress corrosion cracking
occurred.
Coal: The primary fuel used by integrated iron and steel producers.
Coated steels: Steel is coated by a heat process, or through electrolysis, with a layer to protect the
metal base against corrosion. The most commonly used coating material is zinc which can be
applied either using the heat process (hot-dip galvanising) or using electrolysis (electro-galvanising).
An organic coating (paint, plastic) can also be deposited on the zinc layer.
Coil: A finished steel product such as sheet or strip which has been wound or coiled after rolling.
Coke: A form of carbonised coal burned in blast furnaces to reduce iron ore pellets or other iron-
bearing materials iron.
Coke ovens: Ovens where coke is produced. Coal is usually dropped into the ovens through
openings in the roof, and heated by gas burning in flues in the walls within the coke oven battery.
After heating for about 18 hours, the end doors are removed and a ram pushes the coke into a
quenching car for cooling before delivery to the blast furnace.
Coke Rate: Represented in kg, of BF Coke consumed per tonne of Hot Metal produced in the blast
furnace (Kg/THM).
Coking Coal : Coking coals need to get through the process, Carbonisation. The coke that
produced is in a strong and porous mass.
Metallurgical Coke: Only good quality coke made from specific blend of coking coal can be used in
metallurgical operations. (Called met coke)
Blast Furnace (BF) Coke: Met Coke that are used for iron making in BF.
Non-coking coal (NCC): NCC is with poor coking properties. For example, NCC does not soften
and form cake like coking coal during carbonization in the coke oven.
Coking time : Time required for conversion of coal to coke in the coke oven. The coking time is from
15-20 hours. which varies in the range of 15- 20 hrs.
Cold rolling: Passing a sheet or strip that has previously been hot rolled and picked through cold
rolls (below the softening temperature of the metal). Cold rolling makes a product that is thinner,
smoother and stronger than can be made by hot rolling alone.
Continuous casting: A process for solidifying steel in the form of a continuous strand rather than
individual ingots. Molten steel is poured into open-bottomed, water-cooled moulds. As the molten
steel passes through the mould, the outer shell solidifies.
Colour coated products: Steel products coated with PVC/ plastics or any other organic material.
Corrosion: An electrochemical process in which metal atoms are removed from the surface of the
metal.
CRC: Cold rolled coil (see cold rolling)
Crude steel: Steel in the first solid state after melting, suitable for further processing or for sale.
Synonymous with raw steel.

Direct reduction: A group of processes for making iron from ore without exceeding the melting
temperature. No blast furnace is needed.
Duplex: Steel that mix with austenite and ferrite. It has higher mechanical strength and stress
corrosion cracking resistance.

Electric arc furnace: A furnace for scrap-based steelmaking. Once the furnace is charged and
covered, graphite electrodes are lowered through holes in the roof. The electric arc travelling
between the electrodes and the metallic charge creates intense heat which melts the scrap. Alloying
elements can be added during the process.
Electrical steels: Specially manufactured cold rolled sheet and strip containing silicon, processed to
develop definite magnetic characteristics for use by the electrical industry.

Fatigue (endurance): A gradual mechanical failure mechanism caused by oscillating (cyclic)

stresses, like vibration over continuous stress reversals.
Ferrite: Steel with the smallest building block of atomic structure of ‚body centred cubic‘ (bcc) ie one
atom at the eight corners of a cube and one in the centre of the cube. Ferritic stainless steel is
magnetic.
Ferro Alloys: Master alloys used for de-gassing/ de-oxidising or alloying in steel making. They are
usually ferro silicon, ferro manganese, silico manganese, ferro chrome, ferro nickel etc.
Flat products: A type that is produced by rolls with smooth surfaces and ranges of dimension,
varying in thickness. The two major flat steel product categories are thin, flat products (between
1mm and 10mm in thickness) and plates (between 10mm and 200mm thick and used for large
welded pipes, ship building, construction, major works and boilers).
Fluxes: Usually used in Iron/ Steel making, such as limestone, dolomite. To removed ash slag and
impurities.

Galfan alloy coated sheets: Cold rolled sheet/strips coated with Zinc-Aluminium alloy. It consists of
95% zinc and 5% aluminium. It has better corrosion properties.
Galvalume alloy coated sheets: Cold rolled sheet/strips coated with alloy (55% aluminium and
45% zinc with nominal amount of silicon.) It has better high temperature performance.
Galvanised steel: Produced when hot or cold rolled sheet or strip is coated with zinc, either by the
hot-dipping or electrolytic deposition processes. Zinc coating applied by the hot dip method is
normally heavy enough to resist corrosion without additional protective coating. Materials
electronically galvanised are not used for corrosion-resistant applications without subsequent
chemical treatment and painting, except in mild corrosive conditions, due to the thin coating of zinc.
Galvanise is a pure zinc coating. A special heat-treating process converts the pure zinc coating to a
zinc/iron alloy coating, and the product is known as Galvanneal.

Hardening: Accompanied with the heat treatment processes (austenitising and tempering). Cold
work can increase the hardness of austenitic stainless steel as well.
High Speed Steel (HSS): Alloy steel which consist of tungsten, vanadium, chromium, cobalt and
other metals.HSS commonly used for manufacture of cutting tools.
HDG: Hot dip galvanised (see galvanised steel)
Hot Working: Forging done above the recrystallisation temperature of the steel. Do not need to do
annealing after hot working.
Hot-rolling mill: Equipment on which solidified steel preheated to a high temperature is
continuously rolled between two rotating cylinders.
Cold rolling mill: Equipment that reduces the thickness of flat steel products by rolling the metal
between alloy steel cylinders at room temperature.
Hot metal/Liquid Iron: Molten iron produced in the blast furnace.
HRC: Hot rolled coil
Ingot Steel (Ingots): The primary solid product gained after the solidification of liquid steel
Integrated steelmaker: A producer that converts iron ore into semi-finished or finished steel products.
Traditionally, this process required coke ovens, blast furnaces, steelmaking furnaces and rolling mills. A
growing number of integrated mills use the direct reduction process to produce sponge iron without coke ovens
and blast furnaces.
Iron: Metal that extracted from iron ore.
Iron making: The process of the reduction of iron ore.
Iron ore: The primary raw material in the manufacture of steel.

Ladle metallurgy: The process whereby conditions (temperature, pressure and chemistry) are controlled
within the ladle of the steelmaking furnace to improve productivity in preceding and subsequent steps, as well
as the quality of the final product.
Limestone: Used by the steel industry to remove impurities from the iron made in blast furnaces. Limestone
containing magnesium, called dolomite, is also sometimes used in the purifying process.
Line pipe: Used for transportation of gas, oil or water generally in a pipeline or utility distribution system.
Liquid Steel: The immediate hot molten steel product from steel melting factory
Long products: Long products are used in all industrial sectors, particularly in the construction and
engineering industries.
Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR): LITFR is the number of injuries which has resulted in an
employee or contractor being away from work at least one day after the day it occurred, per million hours
worked.

Martensite: The steel that has high hardness, but can be brittle. When carbon/chromiumare cooled rapidly
from their austenitising temperature during heat treatment, it will be formed.
Mechanical tubing: Welded or seamless tubing produced in a large number of shapes to closer tolerances
than other pipe.
Mini mill: A small non-integrated or semi-integrated steel plant, generally based on electric arc furnace
steelmaking. Mini mills produce rods, bars, small structural shapes and flat rolled products.
Non- alloy steel is divided into 3 categories namely:
1. Low carbon steel or Mild steel (max. 0.3% carbon)
2. Medium carbon steel (0.3 – 0.6% carbon)
3. High carbon steel (>0.6% carbon).
Normalizing: A form of sub-critical temperature annealing process used where some of the structural
breakdown during previous cold working is to be retained.。

Oil country tubular goods (OCTG): Pipe used in wells in oil and gas industries, consisting of casing,
tubing and drill pipe. Casing is the structural retainer for the walls; tubing is used within casing oil wells to
convey oil to ground level; drill pipe is used to transmit power to a rotary drilling tool below ground level.
Open-hearth process: A process for making steel from molten iron and scrap. The open-hearth process has
been replaced by the basic oxygen process in most modern facilities.

Passive: Surface condition contributing to the steel corrosion resistant. For instance, passive film.
Passivation: Surface oxidising treatments, usually done by applying nitric acid.
Pellets: An enriched form of iron ore shaped into small balls.
Pencil Ingots: Small ingots produced in mini-steel plants. (in kg)
Permeability: A magnetic property of materials related to their ability to be attracted by a permanent magnet
or influenced by a magnetic field.
pH: A scale that showed the hydrogen ion concentration of solutions. The pH value of acids is between 1 and
6, alkalis is between 8 and 14 and water (neutral) is 7.
Pickle (pickling): Chemical (commonly acid) treatments done to remove the thin layer of surface metal.
Pig Iron: The product that results from smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke
Plate: A flat rolled product from slabs or ingots of greater thickness than sheet or strip.
Precipitation Hardening: A strengthening mechanism done by heat treatment, but can only be done on
specially formulated steels, such as 1.4542 (17/4PH) and 1.4594 (FV 520B).

Real consumption: For any country or region, apparent consumption for such country or region
adjusted for inventory changes or stockists and end users.
Refining stand: A stage in the process of making crude steel, during which the crude steel is further
refined (i.e. most residual impurities are removed) and additions of other metals may be made
before it is cast.
Refractories: Heat resistant bricks/ shapes/ monolithic mass used for construction/ lining of reaction
vessels/ furnaces. They can be silica, magnesite, dolomite, alumina, fire-clay, mag-carbon and mag-
chrome etc.
 Re-rollable Scrap: Seconds & defective steel products. Already used steel products such as used
rails could be directly used for re- rolling (without resorting to re-melting) into finished products for
specified applications.
Rolling mill: Equipment that reduces and transforms the shape of semi-finished or intermediate
steel products by passing the material through a gap between rolls that is smaller than the entering
materials.

Saleable Steel: The solid steel products that are sold to customers for further processing or direct
use/consumption, like ingots and/or semis and/or finished steel products, but not liquid steel.
Semi-finished products: Steel products such as billet, blooms and slabs. These products can be
made by direct continuous casting of hot steel or by pouring the liquid steel into ingots, which are
then hot rolled into semi-finished products.
Sensitisation: A potential reduction in corrosion resistance (usually associated with intercrystalline
attack) due to holding or passing through particular high temperature ranges.
Sheet: A flat rolled product over 12 inches in width and of less thickness than plate.
Sheet piling: Rolled sections with interlocking joints (continuous throughout the entire length of the
piece) on each edge to permit being driven edge-to-edge to form continuous walls for retaining earth
or water.
Silicon-Electrical steel: Normally contains 0.6 – 6% silicon and has certain magnetic properties.
Therefore, it can be used in transformers, power generators, and electric motors. They are usually in
the below 2 categories:

 Cold Rolled Grain Oriented Silicon-electrical steel sheets/strips (CRGO)

 Cold Rolled Non-Grain Oriented Silicon-electrical steel sheets/strips (CRNO/CRNGO)

Sinter plant: A plant in which iron ore is crushed, homogenised and mixed with limestone and coke
breeze and then cooked (“sintered”) to form sinter which is the main ferrous component of blast
furnace burden.
Sintering: A process which combines ores to fine for efficient blast furnace use with flux stone. The
mixture is heated to form clumps, which allow better draft in the blast furnace.
Slab: A semi-finished steel product obtained by rolling ingots on a rolling mill or processed through a
continuous caster and cut into various lengths. The slab has a rectangular cross section and is used
as a starting material in the production process of flat products, i.e. hot rolled coils or plates.
Slag: A by-product, containing inert materials from the ‘burden’ (the materials put into the blast
furnace at the beginning of the steel making process), that is produced during the melting process.
Special Steel: Steel that produced with special care, so as to attain special/desired properties, for
example, cleanliness, surface qualities and mechanical/ metallurgical properties.
Sponge Iron: The product of the direct reduction process. Also known as direct reduced iron (DRI).
Stainless steels: Stainless steels are distinguished from carbon steel by their chromium (ferritic
steel) content and, in certain cases, nickel (austenitic steel). Adding chromium to carbon steel makes
it more rust and stain-resistant, and when nickel is added to chromium stainless steel it enhances its
mechanical properties, for example its density, heat capacity and strength.
Standard pipe: Used for low-pressure conveyance of air, steam, gas, water, oil or other fluids and
for mechanical applications. Used primarily in machinery, buildings, sprinkler systems, irrigation
systems, and water wells rather than in pipelines or distribution systems.
Steel: Steel is an iron based alloy which contains carbon, silicon and anganese etc.
Steel making: The process of selective oxidation of impurities present in the charge material (hot
metal/Scrap/DRI) in the presence of suitable fluxes in the Steel Melting Shops (SMS).
Steel Melting Scrap: Steel waste/scrap are not usable as it still need to further re-melted to produce
liquid steel to produce different products.
Stress Relieving: After cold working, heat treatment was done to reduce internal stresses and to
improve resistance to stress corrosion cracking.
Stretch Forming: One of the cold forming method. A sheet is drawn into a die by a press tool and
where the edges of the sheet are restrained to make deep cup or bowl shapes.
Strip: Flat steel coil products, with widths of less than 600mm for hot rolled products and less than
500mm for cold rolled products. The wider flat products are called wide strips.
Structural pipe and tubing: Welded or seamless pipe and tubing generally used for structural or
load-bearing purposes above-ground by the construction industry, as well as for structural members
in ships, trucks, and farm equipment.
Structural shapes: Rolled flange sections, sections welded from plates, and special sections with at
least one dimension of their cross-section three inches or greater. Included are angles, beams,
channels, tees and zeds.

Tempering: The second stage during the hardening/strengthening heat treatment of martensitic
stainless steel. Toughness will be improved but the strength and hardness is weakened.
Thin strip continuous casting: Casting technology that takes liquid steel and casts it into solid strip
in one step, thereby eliminating the need for a continuous slab caster and hot strip mill.
Tin coated steel: Cold rolled sheet, strip or plate coated with tin or chromium.
Ton (t):
1. A unit of weight in the UK Customary System equal to 2,240 pounds. Also known as long ton.
2. A unit of weight in the US Customary System equal to 2,000 pounds. Also known as short ton. Also
known as net ton.
Tonne (T): A metric tonne, equivalent to 1,000 kilograms or 2,204.6 pounds or 1.1023 short ton.
Toughness: The ability of a material to withstand sudden impacts.

Wire rods: Coiled bars of up to 18.5 millimetres in diameter, used mainly in the production of wire.
Wire: drawn and/or rolled: The broad range of products produced by cold reducing hot-rolled steel
through a die, series of dies, or through rolls to improve surface finish, dimensional accuracy and
physical properties.