According to Midrex, production inched up 120,000 tons to 72.76 million tons during the year, with Iran, India and the U.S. posting the greatest increases. 

“The surge of DRI in Iran from 14.6 million tons to over 16 million tons was part of the long-standing growth trend of its national steel industry. Capitalizing on large iron ore resources and extraordinary reserves of natural gas, the country plans to continue expanding very rapidly over the ensuing decades, using direct reduced iron,” Midrex said. 

In India, the growth in production was aided by lower costs for imported liquefied natural gas and by the stabilization of the coal gasification plants that supply direct reduction furnaces, Midrex said. In the U.S., Nucor’s Louisiana DRI plant moved closer to reaching nameplate capacity and voestalpine’s new hot-briquetted iron plant started up late in 2016.

The gains, however, were offset by declines in, among other places, Venezuela, whose economy has collapsed, and Trinidad and Tobago, where ArcelorMittal shuttered three DRI plants, Midrex said.