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in the 70s i worked on deck on a canadian coastal tanker, we saile in ballast from saint john to montreal ans accumulated lots of snow an ice on the deck. we loaded at the fina refinery for rimouski. i went for a few brews an when i got back at the snow and ice was gone. apparently the gasoline pumpe on boar was warm an melted all the snow an ice from the deck

Boats I were on carried hot loads out Silver Bay with no problems. Most other docks work off stockpiles on site or deliver some distance from pellet plant to dock by rail and cool down.
During the Winter Navigation Program years we hauled many hot cargoes out of Silver Bay and it actually helped keep the deck somewhat ice free from heavy spray or boarding seas.

I worked in the plant here in silver bay in the pelletizer for about 9 months before the plant went down in may of 2022 the pellets made at northshore are heated anywhere from 1000 to 2500 degrees if it was standard they were heated to about 1500 the DRI were heated t about 2200 more than one hot pellet straight from the furnace hit my back an gave me good burns or hit my hardhat an melted a bit of plastic when i worked in the Bowles of the pelletizer as a cleanup maintenance operations person

It's been 12+ years since I took the Hibbing Taconite tour, but my recollection is that the pellets are baked at 600 degrees F. Even if they were loaded directly from the oven to cars (they aren't), they are not hot enough to warp/damage steel. Though I would not recommend reaching in an grabbing a handful.

In relation to hot pellets are there any precautions necessary when these are loaded? It seems the heat build up in the cargo hold could have some effect on the steel structure.

I've seen this more than a few times. Train loads of fresh, still steaming taconite pellets from the plant being delivered to the docks. My question is this, how fresh are the pellets if they are still steaming? How long does it take for them to cool after being made? Are they made to order for a specific customer?