Primary metal production — General

As the etymology suggests, steels are produced in steel mills, and these operations are described under the heading "Steel mills", while the diagram in figure 1 clearly shows that, despite the major research efforts made by steelmakers to develop a reactor where iron ore would be charged to produce steel directly, all steel production worldwide is carried out in two stages:

• production of primary metal (cast iron, DRI or reduced iron ores) or collection and recycling of scrap metal to feed the steel mill;

• production of liquid steel from these primary metals.

These operations of production or collection of a primary metal (cast iron, DRI or reduced iron ores, scrap) are the subject of separate articles, and this introduction aims to :

• specify the choices between these various raw materials;

• indicate the relative importance of these channels;

• their evolution.