A vertical shaft furnace that produces liquid metals by the reaction of a flow of air introduced under pressure into the bottom of the furnace with a mixture of metallic ore, coke (blast furnace fuel), and flux fed into the top.
In a blast furnace, coke (C) reacts with oxygen to form carbon monoxide, which then reacts with iron oxide to form carbon dioxide and pig iron.
Pig iron is obtained by the chemical reduction of iron ore.
This process of reduction of the iron ore to pig iron is known as smelting.
Hence, the iron produced in the blast furnace is pig iron.