Market
Conference
Global DRI production in 2009 up by 9pct YoY
作者：1 发布时间：2010-03-19 文字大小：【大】【中】【小】
According to Midrex Technologies Inc, approximately 62 million tonnes of DRI in the form of pellet, lump and HBI was produced in 2009. Despite harsh economic conditions that crippled most financial sectors, world DRI production only decreased about 9% from the previous year’s record production of 68 million tonnes.
In the early part of the year many plants were idled or running at minimal capacities, but production began to ramp up in the 2nd half and in particular the 4th quarter of the year. The 2009 trends still show that DRI usage is gaining popularity despite reduced world steel production and consumption. The 9% decrease in DRI production can be juxtaposed against Blast Furnace production (outside of China) which dropped by 22% in 2009 from the previous year.
While the overall total production of DRI decreased, India and Iran did grow in this period. Growth was due in part to the ramping up to production of new shaft furnace plants in Iran and rotary kilns in India. Once again, India led all nations, making 22 million tonnes with Iran in second place, producing more than 8 million tonnes. Venezuela, which had long been the leading producer produced between 5 and 6 million tonnes based on initial data and substantial drop from the nearly 7 million produced in 2008.
The major economic story of 2009 was, of course, the continuing financial crisis. In many parts of the world, it brought the steel industry below half capacity during the first half of the year. It is particularly interesting to compare the effect of the crisis on the DR industry and to contrast this to the effect it had on the blast furnace industry. The graph shows the month by month production of each industry relative to their maxima experienced in the first half of 2008. For each, DR and BF, the data is normalized so that the peak production is set at 100%.
Also, China is excluded from both cases, since China has only a very small DR industry and its unique, very positive, response to the crisis combined with the fact that China produces well over half of the world’s hot metal, would severely skew the results.
In the case of DR, the dark blue line, production was still growing rapidly through the first half of 2008, reaching an all time high by July. By October it was beginning to drop and by December, 2008 had declined to only 75%. But, DR began recovering almost immediately and by the end of 2009 was back to within only 4% of the all time high.
On the other hand the blast furnace industry was operating close to its peak through the first part of 2008 and began to drop a month earlier, in September. By the end of 2008 and through the first half of 2009, it was down into the 60% to 65% range, but then began recovering. By the end of 2009, it was still only back up to about 85% of its peak. Thus the DR industry, which began declining later, only fell about half as far and recovered much earlier than the blast furnace industry.
Another important item to note is the nationalization of the DR industry in Venezuela that occurred 2009. This created its own problems and has affected operation and production.
Still, despite these factors, direct reduction remained reasonably healthy and recovered much faster than other sectors. The metallic may even be positioned for an even brighter future as the world focuses on greener technologies and reducing carbon emissions. Already seen as a preferred choice for reducing emissions, the further demand and utilization of the product and associated technologies appears to be on the rise for the future.
Sourced from: www.steelguru.com
In the early part of the year many plants were idled or running at minimal capacities, but production began to ramp up in the 2nd half and in particular the 4th quarter of the year. The 2009 trends still show that DRI usage is gaining popularity despite reduced world steel production and consumption. The 9% decrease in DRI production can be juxtaposed against Blast Furnace production (outside of China) which dropped by 22% in 2009 from the previous year.
While the overall total production of DRI decreased, India and Iran did grow in this period. Growth was due in part to the ramping up to production of new shaft furnace plants in Iran and rotary kilns in India. Once again, India led all nations, making 22 million tonnes with Iran in second place, producing more than 8 million tonnes. Venezuela, which had long been the leading producer produced between 5 and 6 million tonnes based on initial data and substantial drop from the nearly 7 million produced in 2008.
The major economic story of 2009 was, of course, the continuing financial crisis. In many parts of the world, it brought the steel industry below half capacity during the first half of the year. It is particularly interesting to compare the effect of the crisis on the DR industry and to contrast this to the effect it had on the blast furnace industry. The graph shows the month by month production of each industry relative to their maxima experienced in the first half of 2008. For each, DR and BF, the data is normalized so that the peak production is set at 100%.
Also, China is excluded from both cases, since China has only a very small DR industry and its unique, very positive, response to the crisis combined with the fact that China produces well over half of the world’s hot metal, would severely skew the results.
In the case of DR, the dark blue line, production was still growing rapidly through the first half of 2008, reaching an all time high by July. By October it was beginning to drop and by December, 2008 had declined to only 75%. But, DR began recovering almost immediately and by the end of 2009 was back to within only 4% of the all time high.
On the other hand the blast furnace industry was operating close to its peak through the first part of 2008 and began to drop a month earlier, in September. By the end of 2008 and through the first half of 2009, it was down into the 60% to 65% range, but then began recovering. By the end of 2009, it was still only back up to about 85% of its peak. Thus the DR industry, which began declining later, only fell about half as far and recovered much earlier than the blast furnace industry.
Another important item to note is the nationalization of the DR industry in Venezuela that occurred 2009. This created its own problems and has affected operation and production.
Still, despite these factors, direct reduction remained reasonably healthy and recovered much faster than other sectors. The metallic may even be positioned for an even brighter future as the world focuses on greener technologies and reducing carbon emissions. Already seen as a preferred choice for reducing emissions, the further demand and utilization of the product and associated technologies appears to be on the rise for the future.
Sourced from: www.steelguru.com
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