(i) The iron and steel industry forms the base of all other industries, so it is called a basic industry. It provides raw material for other industries such as machine tools used for production. (ii) It may be called a heavy industry because it uses large quantities of bulky raw materials and its products are also heavy. (iii) Iron is extracted from iron ore by smelting in a blast furnace with carbon and lime stone.The molten iron is cooled and moulded to form pig iron which is used for converting into steel by adding strengthening materials like manganese. (iv) The large integrated steel industry is traditionally located close to the sources of raw materials-iron ore, coal, manganese and limestone. (v) Places where these could be easily brought near ports. In mini steel plants/mills access to markets is more important than inputs.