In this process, the raw material is steel scrap. Scrap pieces are processed to reduce them to the desired dimensions and then placed in a furnace. Here they are melted by the heat from an electric arc generated between three graphite electrodes and the underlying scrap. In this way, semi-finished products called “long products” are obtained, i.e. beams and bars for reinforced concrete, rails, hardware products, wire rods and street furniture products.

The semi-finished product used for the production of steel packaging is a laminate that comes out of the steel mills as a coil.
After delivery to the steel packaging manufacturing companies, the coil is unrolled and cut to the size of the container to be produced. The laminate can be of three types: electrolytic tinplate, chrome plate and black plate.

Steel packaging can contain food and non-food products: nowadays the variety of preserved products is truly vast.

Steel packaging is currently used to preserve – in addition to tomatoes, jellied meat and oil – food such as beans, chickpeas, broad beans, peas, lentils, boiled green beans, potatoes, corn, carrots, asparagus, cucumber, mushrooms, vegetables in brine, fruit in syrup, biscuits, tuna and mackerel in oil and water, anchovies and sardines in oil and salted, salmon pâté, chopped meat (including crab meat), ready-made tripe with sauce, whole and pitted olives, ground spices, granulated vegetable and meat stock, dog and cat food, candies, soft drinks, beer, liqueurs, coffee, instant barley, tea and cream.

Steel containers are widespread throughout the world and, depending on the country, can contain the most diverse foods. These include, in Germany, plain sauerkraut and some types of pickled frankfurters, in England, turtle soup, in the United States, moose meat and buffalo meat with beans, in Japan, whale meat and blowfish in sake, in China, bamboo shoots and shark fin soup, in South Africa, crocodile meat, in Botswana, worms of the mopani tree in brine, in Norway, herring in oil and reindeer meat, in Canada, seal meat, and in France, lobster bisque. In short: there is something for all tastes.

Steel packaging is not just for storing food products. Even inedible products need to be packaged to preserve their contents over time. Cigars, once stored in wooden boxes, are among the non-food products preserved in steel; paints and mineral oils, used as lubricants for engines, are also stored in steel buckets. Steel is also used to make spray cans for household cleaning, personal hygiene and cosmetic products. The crown caps of beer bottles and the lids of glass jars are also made of steel. Last, but not least, steel is used for the 200 litre drums containing lubricants, paints, petroleum, etc.