In a statement, Vale said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the GravitHy consortium to evaluate the prospects for the plant, which would produce Vale’s low-temperature agglomerated briquette. The briquette potentially could be used as a feedstock for the direct reduction plant GravitHy is planning to build in France.

Vale announced development of the briquette in 2021 and is building two plants in Brazil to make it. This new plant would be co-located at GravitHy's site.  

The GravitHy plant is being designed with 2 million metric tons of capacity. Construction is expected to start in 2024.

“Vale is committed in providing low-carbon emission solutions for the global steel industry. GravitHy is a good example of a changing steel market where new players take on the challenge to utilize hydrogen to produce low-carbon DRI to supply an expected growing EAF production capacity,” said Rogério Nogueira, Vale director of product and business development.

“We are happy to work with a frontrunner in H2-based DRI production as we believe in the outstanding features of our iron ore briquettes for DRI production.”