Chinese-built steel plant in Zimbabwe fires up its furnace as it ‘builds the nation’

Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is produced by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. From July, the Chinese firm also aims to start making steel billets, an intermediate form of steel. Eventually it will make other products, too, such as pipes, bolts and nuts, smaller slags, rolled tubes, fences, shafts, wires and bars.