Ferroalloy is one of the essential and important raw materials for the square tube industry and the mechanical casting industry. It is mainly used as a deoxidizer and alloying agent for steelmaking, and a casting crystal nuclei inoculant.

(1) Used as a deoxidizer. In the process of steelmaking, various impurities in molten steel are mainly removed by oxidation (addition of oxidant or oxygen blowing), so a large amount of oxygen is dissolved in molten steel. Oxygen generally exists in the form of FeO in molten steel. If the excess oxygen remaining in the steel is not removed, it cannot be poured into a qualified billet and steel with good mechanical properties. For this reason, it is necessary to add some elements whose affinity to oxygen is stronger than that of iron, and whose oxides are easy to be excluded from the molten steel and enter the slag, so as to reduce the oxygen content in the molten steel. This process is called deoxidation. Elements or alloys used for deoxidation are called deoxidizers. The binding strength of each element in the square tube to oxygen, that is, the deoxidation ability, is as follows from weak to strong: chromium, manganese, carbon, silicon, vanadium, titanium, aluminum, and calcium. Deoxidizers for steelmaking and bone production include ferrosilicon, ferromanganese, silicon-manganese alloy, silicon-calcium alloy, aluminum, etc.

(2) Used as an alloying agent. Steel grades with different alloying elements and contents have different properties. The content of alloying elements in steel is adjusted by adding ferroalloy, and the ferroalloy used to adjust the content of alloying elements in steel is called the alloying agent. Commonly used alloying agents are ferrosilicon, ferromanganese, ferrochrome, ferrotungsten, ferromolybdenum, ferrotitanium, ferroniobium, ferroboron, nickel, and so on.

(3) Used in the foundry industry to improve the casting process and casting performance. One of the measures to change the properties of cast iron and cast steel is to change the solidification conditions of castings and add some iron alloys as crystal nuclei inoculants before pouring to form grain centers so that the formed graphite becomes fine and dispersed, and the grains are refined. Thereby improving the performance of the casting.