All steel products are made from semi-finished steel that comes in the form of slabs, billets and blooms. Though today there are over 3500 varieties of regular and special steel available, steel products can be broadly classified into two basic types according to their shape

Flat products

Derived from slabs this category includes plates and Hot Rolled Steel such as Coils/Sheets. While plates are used for applications such as shipbuilding etc. HR Steel is the most widely used variety of steel and other downstream flat products such as Cold Rolled Steel and Galvanised steel are made from it.

HR Steel has a variety of applications in the manufacturing sector. It is primarily used for making pipes and has many direct industrial and manufacturing applications, including the construction of tanks, railway cars, bicycle frames, ships, engineering and military equipment and automobile and truck wheels, frames and body parts. Cold Rolled Steel is used primarily for precision tubes, containers, bicycles, furniture and for use by the automobile industry to produce car body panels. Galvanised Steel is used for making roofs in the housing and construction sector.

(Vide Flow chart I and II)

Long products

These products derive their name from their shape. Made using billets and blooms they include rods, bars, pipes, ropes and wires, which are used largely by the housing/construction sector. There are also other products like rail tracks in the category. (Vide Flow chart I and II)

Semi finished steel is also used to produce other varieties of specialized steel such as Alloy Steel.

Flow chart I: Blast furnace route for producing steel

Flow chart II: Electric Arc Furnace route of producing steel