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The metals other than iron that steelmakers and processors buy in quantity: aluminium to deoxidise steel, zinc to galvanize it, nickel for stainless and alloy steels, tin for tinplate, copper for weathering steels, and magnesium to desulphurise hot metal. Most are traded on the London Metal Exchange, whose prices set what steel mills pay for them.
Aluminium is the steelmaker's strongest common deoxidiser: added as shot, notched bar, cones or wire in the ladle, it combines with dissolved oxygen so that the steel casts without gas and with a fine grain. Aluminium-killed steels — most flat-rolled and many long products — use around 1–2 kg per tonne. Secondary aluminium of lower purity is often good enough for this and is cheaper.
Zinc goes overwhelmingly into coatings: hot-dip galvanizing of fabricated steel, continuous galvanizing of strip (GI and galvannealed) and zinc-aluminium alloy coatings. Nickel is the expensive part of austenitic stainless steel — about 8–10% of 304 — and is added as cathode, briquettes, pellets or as ferronickel and nickel pig iron. Tin plates thin steel strip into tinplate; copper is added to weathering steels and some structural grades; and magnesium, often with lime, is injected into hot metal to remove sulphur.
These metals are priced off the London Metal Exchange (LME), with regional premiums for delivery and form; Shanghai and COMEX prices are followed too. Because they are a large share of the cost of stainless and coated steel, mills pass them on through alloy surcharges and zinc-cost adjustments.
The GCC is one of the world's major primary aluminium producers — smelters in the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman — so steel plants in the region can buy deoxidation aluminium locally. Zinc, nickel, tin and copper are imported; zinc demand comes from the region's many galvanizing plants and the coil coating lines making GI and prepainted steel.
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| USA | ASTM B37 ASTM |
Aluminum for use in iron and steel manufacture |
| International | ISO 752 ISO |
Zinc ingots — classification, chemical composition and marking of primary zinc |
| Europe | EN 1179 CEN-CENELEC |
Zinc and zinc alloys — primary zinc |
| USA | ASTM B6 ASTM |
Zinc — SHG, HG and PW grades |
| USA | ASTM B39 ASTM |
Nickel — refined nickel grades |
| USA | ASTM B115 ASTM |
Electrolytic copper cathodes |
| Europe | EN 1978 CEN-CENELEC |
Copper and copper alloys — copper cathodes |
| USA | ASTM B339 ASTM |
Pig tin |
| USA | ASTM B92/B92M ASTM |
Unalloyed magnesium ingot and stick for remelting |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
Local Steel Mills · Coil Service Center · Stockist - Distributor · Ras Alkhaima
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Other Steel Users · Riyadh
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