Steel slab rolled hot on a wide strip mill into a long, thin band and wound into a coil, sold as coil or cut into sheets. Hot rolled coil (HRC) is the base product of the flat steel chain: it is used as it is for pipes, sections and fabrication, and it is the feedstock for cold rolling, galvanizing and pre-painting.
Hot rolled coil is made by reheating a continuously cast slab to about 1,200 °C and reducing it through a roughing mill and a finishing train of four to seven stands to the final thickness, typically 1.5 to 25 mm. The strip is cooled with water on the run-out table, which sets its strength, and wound into a coil at 550–700 °C. Thin-slab casting and rolling plants (compact strip production) make the same product from a slab only 50–90 mm thick and reach thinner gauges, down to about 1.0–1.2 mm.
As rolled, the surface carries a dark scale of iron oxide, which is why hot rolled sheet is also called black sheet. For forming, painting or galvanizing the coil is pickled in acid to remove the scale and oiled against rust (P&O, HRPO). Coils are sold with mill edges or with trimmed edges, or slit into narrow strip for tube mills and roll formers, or cut to length into sheets and plates on a cut-to-length line.
Two families of grade cover most of the market. Forming steels (EN 10111 DD11–DD14, JIS SPHC–SPHE, ASTM A1011 CS and DS) are low-carbon and soft, for pressing and bending. Structural steels (EN 10025-2 S235JR–S355J2, JIS SS400, ASTM A1011 SS, Chinese Q235B and Q355B) are bought for strength, and thermomechanically rolled high-strength grades (EN 10149-2 S355MC–S700MC) are used for lighter vehicle frames, cranes and trailers. Line pipe skelp is rolled to API 5L grades for ERW and spiral pipe.
Most HRC in the region goes into welded pipe and hollow sections, cold-formed purlins and channels, storage tanks, steel structures and the cold rolling and galvanizing lines that make building sheet. The GCC rolls far less flat steel than it consumes, so a large share is imported from China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and other exporters; within the GCC the main hot strip producer is Hadeed (SABIC) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. MESteel publishes weekly HRC prices CFR UAE for Tier 1 mills, Tier 3 mills and 1.2 mm, a monthly Middle East import price and Chinese HRC futures.
HRC is often the reference price for the whole flat steel chain: cold rolled, galvanized and pre-painted products are priced as HRC plus a processing extra, so movements in hot rolled coil feed through to them within weeks.
Hot rolled flat products are sold by thickness × width, in coils or cut lengths. Sheets cut from coil follow the coil tolerances of EN 10051; plate rolled on a reversing plate mill is a separate product with its own standard — see hot rolled plates.
For a quick mass or count, a 1 mm sheet weighs 7.85 kg/m²; the sheets-per-tonne table below gives counts for the standard sizes, and the steel weight calculator works out any other.
Full dimensions: Steel sheet mass per m² and sheets per tonne · Hot rolled sheet and coil tolerances (EN 10051, formerly DIN 1016)
The tolerances and the steel grade are ordered to separate standards: for example EN 10051 for dimensions and EN 10111 or EN 10025-2 for the steel.
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | EN 10051 CEN-CENELEC |
Continuously hot-rolled uncoated plate, sheet and strip — tolerances on dimensions and shape |
| Europe | DIN 1016 DIN replaced by EN 10051 |
Hot-rolled sheet and strip — dimensions and tolerances (withdrawn) |
| Europe | EN 10111 CEN-CENELEC |
Continuously hot-rolled low-carbon steel sheet and strip for cold forming — grades DD11, DD12, DD13, DD14 |
| Europe | DIN 1614 DIN replaced by EN 10111 |
Hot-rolled low-carbon steel sheet and strip for cold forming — StW 22, StW 23, StW 24 (withdrawn) |
| Europe | EN 10025-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Hot-rolled products of structural steels — non-alloy structural steels S235, S275, S355 |
| Europe | EN 10149-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Hot-rolled flat products of high-yield-strength steels for cold forming — thermomechanically rolled S315MC to S700MC |
| USA | ASTM A1011/A1011M ASTM |
Hot-rolled carbon, structural, HSLA and ultra-high-strength steel sheet and strip — CS, DS, SS, HSLAS, UHSS |
| USA | ASTM A1018/A1018M ASTM |
Heavy-thickness hot-rolled coils (over 6 mm) — the successor to ASTM A635 |
| USA | ASTM A568/A568M ASTM |
General requirements for hot-rolled and cold-rolled carbon and HSLA steel sheet, including tolerances |
| International | API 5L API |
Line pipe — PSL1 and PSL2 grades (B, X42 to X80) to which HRC skelp for welded line pipe is rolled |
| Japan | JIS G3131 JSA |
Hot-rolled mild steel plates, sheets and strip — SPHC, SPHD, SPHE, SPHF |
| Japan | JIS G3101 JSA |
Rolled steels for general structure — SS400, SS490, SS540 |
| Japan | JIS G3132 JSA |
Hot-rolled carbon steel strip for pipes and tubes — SPHT1 to SPHT4 |
| China | GB/T 3274 SAC |
Hot-rolled plates, sheets and strips of carbon structural and high-strength low-alloy steels (Q235, Q355) |
| China | GB/T 709 SAC |
Dimension, shape, weight and tolerances for hot-rolled steel plates, sheets and strips |
| India | IS 2062 BIS |
Hot-rolled medium and high tensile structural steel — E250 to E650 |
| India | IS 10748 BIS |
Hot-rolled steel strip for welded tubes and pipes |
| International | ISO 3573 ISO |
Hot-rolled carbon steel sheet of commercial and drawing qualities |
| International | ISO 4995 ISO |
Hot-rolled steel sheet of structural quality |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Base Materials · Dubai
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Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Base Materials · Dubai
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Tube Manufacturer · Stockist - Distributor · Dubai
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