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Steel is made from iron and carbon. Cast iron is a hard, brittle material that is difficult to work, whereas steel is malleable, relatively easily formed and versatile. On its own, iron is not strong, but a low concentration of carbon – less than 1 percent, depending on the kind of steel – gives steel strength and other important properties.
Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel — 98% of the mined iron ore is used to make steel. [2] In 2011 the Financial Times quoted Christopher LaFemina, mining analyst at Barclays Capital, saying that iron ore is "more integral to the global economy than any other commodity ...
Iron alloys are most broadly divided by their carbon content: cast iron has 2–4% carbon impurities; wrought iron oxidizes away most of its carbon, to less than 0.1%. The much more valuable steel has a delicately intermediate carbon fraction, and its material properties range according to the carbon percentage: high carbon steel is stronger but more brittle than low carbon steel.
The characteristic properties of elemental metals and nonmetals are quite distinct, as shown in the table below. Metalloids, straddling the metal-nonmetal border , are mostly distinct from either, but in a few properties resemble one or the other, as shown in the shading of the metalloid column below and summarized in the small table at the top ...
In 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2016 output fell in the majority of steel-producing countries as a result of the global recession. In 2010 and 2017, it started to rise again. Crude steel production contracted in all regions in 2019 except in Asia and the Middle East. India is the 2nd leading producer of iron and steel industries. [citation needed]
Between 2000 and 2005, world steel demand increased by 6%. Since 2000, several Indian [67] and Chinese [68] steel firms have expanded to meet demand, such as Tata Steel (which bought Corus Group in 2007), Baosteel Group and Shagang Group. As of 2017, though, ArcelorMittal is the world's largest steel producer. [69]
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His method let him produce steel in large quantities cheaply, thus mild steel came to be used for most purposes for which wrought iron was formerly used. The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic Bessemer process ) was an improvement to the Bessemer process, made by lining the converter with a basic material to remove phosphorus.