Iron ore is the key ingredient in making steel. However, iron ore is used in various forms for making iron/steel. How iron ore is processed and get prepared for making steel, and what are the various stages in the value chain?
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Sophia Cyrus
There are three main types of iron ore:
There are also various grades of iron ore, depending on iron contents.
The below image shows the value chain of the iron ore
To make sinter, ore fines are mixed with coke and fluxes. They enter a furnace on a moving belt. The ore particles and fluxes fuse together to form sinter.
Fines can be beneficiated to higher Fe contents for sinter or pellet production. Blast furnace pellets are used in some regions where the ore types are suitable. Most pellets are made from hematite, exceptions being Sweden and USA where magnetite is used. Pelletising uses less energy than sinter and has lower CO2 and SO2 emissions.
Iron ore is produced around the world but Australia and Brazil dominate the market.
AMK
The iron ore value chain moves from iron ore itself, through pig iron (oroduced in a blast furnace) up to liquid steel (typically, made in a basic oxygen converter).
If you are making flat products, the value chain continues to steel slab, then hot rolled steel coil. Hot rolled coil is normally then cold rolled to sheet or thinner-gauge steel coil (called cold rolled coil). This can then be galvanised into hot dip galvanised coil or sheet.
The HDG steel can then be further treated with plastic coating, to produce organic coated sheet (OCS).
Prices at each different step of the value chain vary significantly. Iron ore is generally priced at under $100/tonne. OCS is often priced above $750/tonne.
An analysis of the full value chain described above, from iron ore to OCS, can be found here: iron ore value chain.