Production of Iron and Steel

Iron, at 5 % of the earth’s crust, is the most abundant metal after aluminum and the fourth most abundant element present in the surface rocks of the earth [1]. Iron is also the pre-eminently useful metal of our society for the manufacture of machinery of all types and for constructional purposes. The general wide utility of iron, on its own quite a versatile metal, and of an increasingly wide variety of steels, iron alloys which are being tailored to meet a range of demanding applications, combine to make the tonnage of iron produced each year easily exceed the combined annual production of all the other metals used by man.