Mineral-based Industries — Part 1: Iron and steel: visual lesson, ICSE Class 10 Geography (H.C.G. Paper 2)

Lesson

The industry behind all industries

Part 1 — rails, bridges, tractors, ships and cooking pots all need steel. An integrated steel plant handles everything from raw materials to finished steel at one site. We study what it needs, where it is built, and three famous plants.

In this lesson you will

List the raw materials of the iron and steel industry
Explain why iron and steel plants are located near coal and iron-ore fields or ports
State the location, ownership and sources of raw materials of Tata Steel, Rourkela and Visakhapatnam

Table of three steel plants with their states and ownership
Plant	State	Ownership
Tata Steel, Jamshedpur	Jharkhand	Private
Rourkela Steel Plant	Odisha	Public (SAIL)
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant	Andhra Pradesh	Public (RINL)

Concept

Raw materials of the iron and steel industry

An integrated plant needs iron ore (mainly hematite), coking coal (turned into coke, which is both fuel and the agent that removes oxygen from the ore), limestone and dolomite (a flux that removes impurities as slag), manganese (to harden steel), refractory materials such as fire clay for lining furnaces, huge amounts of water for cooling, and power. Illustrative quantities per tonne of steel: iron ore 1.6 t, coking coal 0.8 t, limestone and dolomite 0.3 t, manganese ore 0.02 t — about 2.72 t of solids for one tonne of steel.

Table of raw materials of steel with their role and illustrative quantities
Raw material	Role	Illustrative tonnes per tonne of steel
Iron ore	Source of iron	1.6
Coking coal	Fuel; removes oxygen from ore	0.8
Limestone and dolomite	Flux: removes impurities	0.3
Manganese ore	Hardens steel	0.02

Diagram

Inside an integrated steel plant

Coke ovens bake coking coal into coke. In the blast furnace, iron ore, coke and limestone are charged from the top and hot air is blown in from below; the coke burns and reduces the ore to molten hot metal (pig iron), and the limestone combines with impurities as slag (sold to cement plants). In the steel melting shop the carbon content is lowered and alloys added to make steel, which is cast and shaped in rolling mills into plates, sheets, rails and bars.

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