The development of more efficient means for producing and working with iron, and the production of high-grade iron, is one the key advances in human history. Because iron is harder than bronze—the metal most commonly used before iron—it...

Furnaces have been used in the metal-smelting process for thousands of years. The walls of a furnace trap heat to achieve a temperature great enough to melt metal. For millennia, people melted metal simply by building huge fires in furnaces of various...

A cylindrical furnace with a REFRACTORY lining used to SMELT iron ore for the production of iron. The name derives from the process whereby air is ‘blasted’ through the furnace to raise the...

A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce metals, generally iron. In a blast furnace, fuel and ore are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air (sometimes with oxygen enrichment) is blown into...

Everyone knew Wheeling Pittsburgh Corp. was in trouble as it sat in the middle of a takeover battle last fall, deep in debt and dangerously low on cash and credit.But only after winning the proxy fight and seizing control in December did the brothers behind...

Higher metal prices and robust sales in Europe helped United States Steel Corp. more than double its fourth-quarter profit, but the steel maker warned of a downturn in coming months.The sharp increase, which surpassed Wall Street projections, also reflected year-ago results that were undermined by...

The warnings in Ukraine verged on the apocalyptic when Russia sharply raised prices for natural gas a year ago. Many feared factories would close, leading to mass layoffs and grinding industry to a halt. But Ukraine's economy leaped ahead, its businesses quickly adapting to the...