A ‘remarkable’ increase for DRI sector

Global – The world’s direct-reduction industry set another record last year with 75.2 million tonnes produced, according to data compiled by Midrex Technologies. This represents a ‘remarkable’ increase of two million tonnes – or of 2.8% – over 2012.

Midrex plants once again led the production league table for all direct-reduced iron (DRI) products by claiming 63% of the market, followed by rotary kilns (mostly in India) on 21% and Energiron plants on 15%. The DRI industry has grown in eight of the past 10 years; output in 2013 was more than 85% greater than in 2001.

Production records

Several factors continued to act as a drag on growth but were outweighed by demand for DRI. The strongest growth was seen in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, which posted an additional 5 million tonnes of production in 2013: Bahrain entered the group of DRI-producing nations as SULB’s 1.5 million tonnes per year Midrex facility began operation; Iran once again recorded ‘major growth’, increasing output by nearly 3 million tonnes, primarily through the ramp-up of a number of recently-commissioned modules; and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates set new national DRI production records.

As a whole, the MENA region made 32.4 million tonnes of DRI last year, which was 55% of the world’s total production of natural gas-fuelled DRI. Moreover, world DRI production increased in 2013 despite the fact that two key producing countries, India and Venezuela, recorded significant declines in output.