In 2022,Global Production of direct reduced iron reached 127.36 million tons

On September 12, the United States MIDREX (transliteration: Midrex) Company released 2022 global direct reduced iron (DRI) production statistics. According to statistics, the global direct reduced iron production in 2022 was 127.36 million tons, an increase of nearly 6.9%. Over the past six years, global direct reduced iron production has increased by almost 55 million tonnes, an increase of about 75%.

Statistics show that in 2022, global steelmakers produced 73.55 million tons of direct reduced iron using the MIDREX process, of which more than 10 million tons are hot direct reduced iron. Specifically, Iranian steelmakers produced 30.14 million tons of direct reduced iron using the MIDREX process, and steelmakers in other regions produced 43.42 million tons of direct reduced iron using the MIDREX process. In 2022, the total amount of direct reduced iron produced by global steelmakers using the MIDREX process accounted for 80.2% of the total global direct reduced iron produced by shaft furnaces. Since the introduction of the MIDREX process, by the end of 2022, approximately 1.32 billion tons of direct reduced iron in various forms (including cold and hot direct reduced iron and hot pressed iron) have been produced at plants using the MIDREX process worldwide.

In addition, statistics show that in 2022, nearly 70.1% of direct reduced iron is reduced using natural gas, and 29.9% is reduced using coal. In 2022, India’s total production of direct reduced iron was 43.55 million tons, of which 35.39 million tons of direct reduced iron was produced using the rotary kiln process and 8.16 million tons was produced using the gas-based direct reduction process. (Yi Wen)

Table 1 Proportion of direct reduced iron production under different process conditions from 2020 to 2022

Table 2 Top 5 Countries by direct Reduced iron Production in 2022 (Unit: 10,000 tons)

China Metallurgical News (2nd Edition, Page 02, September 29, 2023)