Editing Pig iron (section)

=== Modern uses ===
Pig iron was historically poured directly out of the bottom of the [[blast furnace]] through a channel into a [[ladle (metallurgy)|ladle]] car for transfer to the [[steel mill]] in mostly liquid form; in this state, the pig iron was referred to as ''hot metal''. The hot metal was then poured into a [[steelmaking]] vessel to produce [[steel]], typically an [[electric arc furnace]], [[induction furnace]] or [[basic oxygen furnace]], where the excess carbon is burned off and the [[alloy]] composition controlled. Earlier processes for this included the [[finery forge]], the [[puddling furnace]], the [[Bessemer process]], and the [[open hearth furnace]].

Modern steel mills and [[direct reduced iron|direct-reduction]] iron plants transfer the molten iron to a ladle for immediate use in the steel making furnaces or cast it into pigs on a pig-casting machine for reuse or resale. Modern pig casting machines produce stick pigs, which break into smaller {{convert|4–10|kg|0|adj=on}} piglets at discharge.