Steel Training: Proper Nomenclature

Earlier this week Steel Market Update was speaking with one of the e-commerce companies regarding their business and some of the challenges they see when dealing with companies buying and selling steel through their platform. One of the pitfalls recognized by the head of the e-commerce site was the lack of use of proper nomenclature for the products being bought or sold. People were using words such as CQ (commercial quality), which technically doesn’t exist as it was replaced with CS (commercial steel) in various types (Type A, B) by the ASTM many years ago. The misuse of the technical language for the industry has created the steel equivalent of the City of Babel.

This is one of the reasons why Steel Market Update began our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops. One of our goals is to provide the correct foundation to those within the steel community regarding the steel making process. This includes the correct nomenclature regarding products and qualities, proper use of the ASTM materials and understanding some of the basic testing used to guarantee the products being produced by the domestic (and foreign) steel mills.