also: ずくてつ
pig iron
Technical term for crude iron as produced in a blast furnace, used as a raw material for steelmaking and cast iron.
Pig iron is produced in a blast furnace.
This factory makes steel from pig iron.
Pig iron is produced in a blast furnace and then converted into steel in a converter.
Pig iron is refined to produce steel.
The process of making steel from pig iron is called steelmaking.
銑鉄 is pig iron, an intermediate iron product made before steelmaking, while 粗鋼 is the crude steel produced afterward from processes like the converter.
Standard kanji form; the reading せんてつ is the most common.
Alternate reading ずくてつ is less common and may be encountered in older or specialized contexts.
The kanji 銑 means 'pig iron' and 鉄 means 'iron'. The reading せんてつ is the standard Sino-Japanese reading; ずくてつ is a native Japanese reading of the same characters, now rare.