Scrap steel is heated in a brick lined ladle to around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit by an intense electrical current, and manganese, carbon, and other elements are added during the steelmaking process. The molten metal then flows into molds that cast it into long continuous blocks called blooms, which are cut by acetylene torches into manageable 10 foot lengths after cooling significantly. A crane moves the blooms to a reheating furnace, where they are softened for shaping, then into a rolling mill where large rollers press and squeeze the steel back and forth several times, elongating each bloom to four times its original length. In the 1970s, blooms passed through rolling machines as many as 28 times. For final shaping, each bloom enters another set of rollers that forms it into a recognizable T-shaped railway rail, after which a large shear removes about 11 inches from the end to cut away distorted material for recycling. The rail section, manufacturer, and rolling date are stamped into one side, and the newly formed rail is cooled in a controlled process over several hours, straightened in a rail roller straightener, inspected a final time, and shipped to the customer. Since the mid-1970s, the Pueblo steel mill has made around one million tons of steel each year entirely from recycled scrap steel, making it the largest recycler in Colorado.