How steel is made: a look behind the scenes

Every day, ships dock carrying iron ore, coal, and recycled materials such as scrap. Port cranes, excavators, and an impressive network of conveyor belts are used to unload, sort, and store the cargo in our raw material parks, where it is prepared for production. 

Coal cannot be used directly in the blast furnace; it must first be converted into coke. To do this, coal is heated to around 1,250°C in the coking plant in the absence of oxygen. This produces coke: a solid fuel that is essential for the blast furnace.  

The most important raw material for making steel is iron ore. Iron ore cannot be used directly in the blast furnace either. In the sinter plant, fine iron ore is mixed and baked into lumps of sinter, which are ideal for smelting in the blast furnace.

Coke and sinter are loaded in layers into the blast furnace.  

Iron ores contain oxygen. This oxygen is removed through a reduction process, which involves blowing in hot air heated to between 1,000 and 1,200°C. The result is liquid hot metal. 

In the steel shop, we convert hot metal into steel. First, impurities are removed by blowing oxygen into the converter. We add recycled steel or scrap, which makes up 15 to 20% of the raw materials, to produce more sustainable steel. This is because steel is infinitely recyclable.  

To further refine the quality, we add additional alloying elements.

In the continuous casting line, the liquid steel from the steel ladle is solidified into strands that are ultimately cut into thick slabs.

The steel slabs are reheated in the ovens of the hot strip mill to a temperature between 1,000 and 1,270°C. They are then rolled in several stages into thin, strong sheets, ranging from 1.25 to 13 mm thick. Afterwards, these sheets are coiled. Some of these steel coils go directly to customers, while the majority are further processed in our cold rolling mill. 

In the cold rolling mill, the steel sheets are first pickled to remove oxides. Then they are rolled thinner to between 0.15 and 3 mm. After a heat treatment in the batch annealing furnace or continuous annealing line, the steel sheet is ready for further finishing. 

In Gent, Liège, Genk and Geel, steel is coated with a layer of zinc, which effectively protects the material from rust.  

We have various galvanizing lines, each with their own technology: from fine electrolytic galvanizing to robust hot dip galvanizing, and groundbreaking technologies such as Jet Vapor Deposition for sustainable solutions. This allows us to always offer our customers the right solution, tailored to their specific application.

After galvanizing, the steel can be given an additional coat of paint in our organic coating lines in Ghent, Liège Geel. This makes the end product extra durable and visually appealing. 

The finished steel coils are carefully packaged and shipped by train, truck, or vessel to customers both locally and internationally.