The carbon content of raw materials is a key parameter to ensure that the rotary hearth furnace production line can process zinc-containing dust sludge efficiently at low cost. In order to research the effect of raw material carbon conternt on the quality of metallized pellet products in rotary hearth furnaces，experimental studies are carried out by simulating the process flow of rotary hearth furnaces. Strength detection，chemical analysis，electron microscopy analysis and other methods are used to analyze the pellet strength，metallization rate，dezincification rate and other product indexes corresponding to the carbon conternt of different raw materials. The results show that the increase of carbon conternt of raw materials will lead to the deterioration of green pellet strength，and the carbon conternt has a great influence on the strength and metallization rate of metallized pellets，but a relatively small effect on the dezincification rate. When the carbon-to-oxygen molar ratio of the raw material reaches 0. 68，the overall quality of the metallized pellet product reaches a better level. The carbon fraction of the raw material directly affects the FeO conternt in the pellet during the roasting process. Since FeO is a key component in the pellet to form a low melting point slag phase，which in turn affects the slag phase distribution and pore distribution in the metallized pellet，and changes the reduction kinetic conditions in the pellet. The industrial test data show that if the carbon mass fraction of raw materials is reduced from 13. 61% to 10. 10% ，the metallization rate of the product is reduced by about 9% ，the granulation ratio is increased by about 11% ，and the residual zinc mass fraction is nearly constant. For every 1% decrease in the carbon mass fraction of raw materials，the drum strength of metallized pellet products is increased by 4. 2% on average. In the industrial production of zinc-containing dust sludge treated by rotary hearth furnace，it is more appropriate to control the carbon mass fraction of raw materials at 10%~ 11%.