Global production of direct-reduced iron (DRI) increased by 11.59% in 2018, according to the latest statistics from the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
The principal reason for this growth was higher steel output in the Middle East-North Africa (Mena) region, where more than 90% of steel is produced in electric-arc furnaces, which consume DRI as a raw material, Worldsteel said on Friday January 25.In 2018, DRI production reached 84.1 million tonnes, while a year earlier it was 75.37 million tonnes, according to Worldsteel.More than half of this volume was produced in the Mena region, where DRI output was 43.19 million tonnes.In 2018, DRI production in the same region rose by 7.6 million tonnes, or 21.34% year-on-year.Almost 60% of DRI output in the Mena region comes from Iran,...