UAE long steel producer Emirates Steel has developed a light steel scrap shredder with capacity for 350,000 tonnes per year so it can use local scrap as an alternative feedstock during periods of high price volatility.
Emirates Steel, which predominantly produces steel products via the direct-reduction iron (DRI) route, has gradually increased the volume of scrap it purchases to 225,000 tpy in 2017, up from only 85,000 tpy in 2015."We have developed a total-cost-formation model and, based on this and current [raw materials] prices, we will decide to use either more scrap or more DRI or even hot briquetted iron [HBI] as feedstock," Saeed Al Ghafri, vice president of supply chain management at Emirates Steel, told delegates at Metal Bulletin's 6th World DRI & Pellet Congress in Dubai on Wednesday April 25."Some electric-arc furnaces [EAFs] are equipped to be charged with 100% scrap input but this is not the case...