Iron ore and metallurgical coal
Iron ore and metallurgical coal are used mainly in the blast furnace process of ironmaking. For this process, coking coal is turned into coke, an almost pure form of carbon, which is used as the main fuel and reductant in a blast furnace.
Typically, it takes 1.6 tonnes of iron ore and around 450kg of coke to produce a tonne of pig iron, the raw iron that comes out of a blast furnace. Some of the coke can be replaced by injecting pulverised coal into the blast furnace.
Iron is a common mineral on the earth’s surface. Most iron ore is extracted in opencast mines in Australia and Brazil, carried to dedicated ports by rail, and then shipped to steel plants in Asia and Europe.
According to United Nation’s COMTRADE Statistics Database, global exports of iron ore in 2017 amounted to around 1.5 billion tonnes, representing the second-largest commodity trade volume globally, behind global crude oil exports.
Efficient use of natural resources is critical to sustainability
The steel industry uses advanced technologies and techniques to increase production yield rates, reduce its energy requirements, and facilitate the use of co-products.
On average, 20 GJ of energy is consumed per tonne of crude steel produced globally. The most efficient steel companies have reduced their energy consumption per tonne of steel by around 60% since 1960.