Hard, round balls about 9–16 mm across made by rolling finely ground iron ore concentrate with a binder and firing it at around 1,250–1,350 °C. Pellets are strong, uniform and porous, which makes them the preferred feed for direct-reduction plants and a high-quality charge for blast furnaces.
Also called
Pellets
DR-grade pellets
BF-grade pellets
DR pellets
Blast furnace pellets
Fluxed pellets
Acid pellets
Oxide pellets
AR
كريات خام الحديد (البليت)
ZH
铁矿球团
DE
Eisenerzpellets
FR
Boulettes de minerai de fer
ES
Pellets de mineral de hierro
IT
Pellet di minerale di ferro
TR
Demir cevheri peleti
RU
Железорудные окатыши
Main formsFired oxide pellets — DR grade and blast-furnace grade (acid or fluxed)
Typical sizesTypically 9–16 mm, with limits on fines below 5 mm and oversize above 18 mm
Main standardsISO 4700 (crushing strength), ISO 3271 (tumble), ISO 4698 (swelling), ISO 4695 / 7215, ISO 11258
Key gradesDR grade about 67–68% Fe, SiO₂+Al₂O₃ below about 3%; BF grade about 62–66% Fe
Pelletising turns ore that is too fine to use into a product better than lump. Concentrate — magnetite or hematite ore ground below about 0.045–0.15 mm and upgraded to 65–70% Fe — is mixed with a binder (usually bentonite, sometimes organic) and with limestone or dolomite where a fluxed pellet is wanted, then rolled into 'green' balls in discs or drums. The balls are dried and fired on a travelling grate or in a grate-kiln, which oxidises any magnetite and sinters the grains into a hard sphere.
Blast-furnace pellets are about 62–66% Fe and are made acid or fluxed (basic) to suit the furnace's slag. Direct-reduction pellets are richer and cleaner — about 67% Fe and more, with silica plus alumina below about 3% — because in a DR plant the gangue is not removed until the electric arc furnace, where every extra percentage costs energy and lime. DR pellets also need high reducibility and resistance to sticking (clustering) and breaking down inside the shaft.
Strength matters as much as chemistry. A pellet is tested for cold crushing strength (typically over 250 daN per pellet), for tumble strength, and for how it behaves under reduction — swelling, disintegration and reducibility — because pellets that break into fines block the gas flow in a shaft or furnace.
The Gulf is one of the world's main pellet-consuming regions because its steel industry is built on gas-based direct reduction. Pellets are made in the region by Bahrain Steel at its plant in Bahrain and by Vale at Sohar in Oman, from concentrate shipped in mainly from Brazil, and are also imported from Brazil, Sweden, Canada and elsewhere. They feed DR plants in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.
Forms & sizes
DR-grade pellets
High-Fe, low-gangue pellets for MIDREX and HYL/Energiron shaft furnaces
BF acid pellets
Low-basicity pellets for blast furnaces, often blended with sinter
BF fluxed pellets
Pellets with added limestone or dolomite so the furnace needs less separate flux
Size
Mostly 9–16 mm; contracts limit material below 5 mm and above 18 mm
Shipment
Bulk carriers; pellets are not a liquefaction risk like fines, but fines generated in handling are screened out before use
Standards & grades
Pellets are sold on chemistry and physical properties; these are the ISO test methods contracts refer to.
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Base Materials · Dubai
