Glossary and abbreviations

Steel products and processes

Apparent steel use

Production plus imports minus exports of finished steel products in a year. It measures steel entering an economy, not steel contained in imported goods (worldsteel definition).

Billet

A semi-finished steel product of square cross-section, typically 100 to 150 mm, cast from liquid steel and later reheated and rolled into bars, wire rod or light sections. Billets are classified under HS heading 7207 with other semi-finished products.

Bloom, beam blank

Larger semi-finished products used to roll heavy sections and beams.

Coated flat products

Flat steel covered with zinc (galvanised) or paint, used for roofing, cladding and appliances (HS 7210).

Cold-rolled and hot-rolled flat products

Sheet and coil rolled at high temperature (hot-rolled, HS 7208) or further reduced at room temperature for a better surface and thinner gauges (cold-rolled, HS 7209).

Crude steel

Steel in its first solid form after casting, the standard measure of steelmaking output.

Direct-reduced iron (DRI)

Iron produced by removing oxygen from iron-ore pellets or lump with natural gas or hydrogen (or with coal in kilns), without melting. It is fed to electric arc furnaces as a clean substitute for scrap.

Electric arc furnace (EAF)

A furnace that melts scrap, DRI or pig iron with electricity to make liquid steel. EAFs account for 30.3% of world steel and 89% of African steel (2025).

Hot-briquetted iron (HBI)

DRI compacted while hot into dense briquettes that can be shipped and stored safely; the traded form of DRI.

Induction furnace

A smaller electric furnace that melts metal by electromagnetic induction; limited in refining capability.

Iron units

The metallic feed of steelmaking: scrap, DRI, HBI, pig iron, and for a re-rolling mill, purchased billets.

Melt shop

The part of a steel plant where iron units are melted, refined (in a ladle furnace) and cast into billets or other semis.

Merchant billet

A billet sold by a melt shop to another company’s rolling mill rather than rolled in-house.

Metallic charge (metallics)

The scrap, DRI, HBI or pig iron charged into a furnace; about 1.15 t is needed per tonne of billet.

Re-rolling mill, re-roller

A mill that buys billets and reheats and rolls them into finished long products, without making its own steel.

Reinforcing bar (rebar)

Ribbed steel bar used to reinforce concrete (HS 7214). Grades such as FE400 and FE500 indicate minimum yield strength in megapascals.

Scrap arising

Ferrous scrap generated in an economy from manufacturing waste (new scrap) and from end-of-life products and structures (obsolete scrap).

Sections

Long products with shaped cross-sections: angles, channels, I-beams, H-beams (HS 7216). Light sections are rolled from billets; heavy sections and beams from blooms or beam blanks.

Structures

Fabricated steel structures and parts such as bridges, towers, frames and roofs (HS 7308).

Wire rod

Hot-rolled round steel in coils, typically 5.5 to 12 mm, drawn into wire, nails and mesh (HS 7213).

Trade, markets and policy

AfCFTA

African Continental Free Trade Area.

Cash cost

The operating cost of producing a tonne, before depreciation, interest and any return on capital.

CBAM

The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which prices the embedded emissions of imported steel and other goods from 2026.

CEEAC (ECCAS)

Economic Community of Central African States; its common external tariff has been harmonised with CEMAC’s.

CEMAC

Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

CFR, CIF, FOB, FOT

Price bases: cost and freight to a named port (CFR); cost, insurance and freight (CIF); free on board at the port of loading (FOB); free on truck in the exporting country (FOT).

Excess capacity

Steelmaking capacity minus steel production, as estimated by the OECD.

Homologated price

A producer price approved by the Ministry of Commerce under Cameroon’s price-regulation regime.

HS chapter 72 and 73

Harmonized System customs chapters for iron and steel (72) and articles of iron or steel (73).

Landed cost (import parity)

The cost of an imported tonne delivered to the buyer: FOB price, freight, insurance, duties, levies, port charges and delivery.

Mirror data

Trade data reported by a country’s partners, used when the country itself does not report.

Safeguard, anti-dumping duty

Trade-defence measures under World Trade Organization rules: a safeguard limits imports that cause serious injury regardless of origin; an anti-dumping duty offsets imports sold below normal value from specific origins.

TRQ

Tariff-rate quota: a volume that enters at a low duty, with a higher duty applied beyond it.

Organisations

ANOR

Agence des Normes et de la Qualité, Cameroon’s standards and quality agency.

ARSEL

Agence de Régulation du Secteur de l’Électricité, Cameroon’s electricity regulator.

BEAC

Banque des États de l’Afrique Centrale, the CEMAC central bank.

INS

Institut National de la Statistique, Cameroon’s national statistics institute.

KPIZ

Kribi Port Industrial Zone, the company developing the industrial zone of the port of Kribi.

Ocitram

An association of Cameroonian steel and metal producers.

PAK

Port Autonome de Kribi, the Kribi port authority.

SND30

Stratégie Nationale de Développement 2020 à 2030, Cameroon’s national development strategy.

SNH

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures, Cameroon’s national hydrocarbons company.

Units

bn FCFA

Billion CFA francs (1 € = 655.957 FCFA).

kg per person

Kilograms of finished steel per inhabitant per year.

kt, Mt, Mtpa

Thousand tonnes; million tonnes; million tonnes per year.

kWh, MW, MVA

Kilowatt-hour (energy); megawatt (power); megavolt-ampere (transformer rating).

US$/dmt

US dollars per dry metric tonne (iron ore).