Prior to continuous casting technology, ingots were rolled to approximately 200 millimetres (7.9 in) thick in a slab or bloom mill. Blooms have a nominal square cross section, whereas slabs are rectangular in cross section.

Slabs are the feed material for hot strip mills or plate mills and blooms are rolled to billets in a billet mill or large sections in a structural mill.

The output from a strip mill is coiled and, subsequently, used as the feed for a cold rolling mill or used directly by fabricators. Billets, for re-rolling, are subsequently rolled in either a merchant, bar or rod mill.

Merchant or bar mills produce a variety of shaped products such as angles, channels, beams, rounds (long or coiled) and hexagons. Rounds less than 16 millimetres (0.63 in) in diameter are more efficiently rolled from billet in a rod mill.

Hot Rolling - Hot Rolling Process | Hot Rolling Application | Types of Hot Rolling Mill | Hot Rolled Steel Tube | History

Cold Rolling - Physical metallurgy | Degree of cold work | Cold Rolling Stainless Steel | Manufacturing Process

Foil rolling | Rolling Mill | Steel Mill | Production methods | Recycling of Steel | Modern Steelmaking | Contemporary Steel