Three levers that move together
Mill economics live in yield, energy intensity, and cost per tonne, and they are linked. Off-spec or scrap at one stage gets re-worked downstream, so a single quality miss hits all three at once.
Make cost visible per heat, not per month
Energy is often the largest variable cost, measured as energy per tonne. As a reference point, the World Steel Association puts industry energy intensity around 21 gigajoules per tonne and material yield near 98 percent, useful lines to benchmark your own against.
The discipline is to see cost per tonne at the level of the heat, batch, or coil, where you can still act on it.
Where the ERP closes the loop
On Hudace, order, process, and energy data sit on one platform, so cost per tonne is visible per run rather than at month-end. Xenon AI predicts off-spec from upstream signals so an operator corrects before the cut, and schedules energy-intensive steps into favourable tariff windows.
The recommendations are for a planner to accept or override. Metallurgical and safety limits stay human-governed.
The numbers to watch
Hold all three levers in one view, since they trade against each other.
Cost per tonne
Total conversion cost / saleable tonnes. The unifying P&L figure energy and yield feed.
Energy intensity
Gigajoules per tonne. Usually the largest variable cost, and the clearest efficiency signal.
Material yield %
Saleable output / raw input. Every point recovered avoids re-work downstream.
Off-spec rate
Share of output outside spec. Falls as upstream drift is caught before the cut.
See cost-per-tonne control on Hudace
Talk to our team about putting order, process, and energy data on one platform.