Direct Reduction

Direct Reduction is an iron making process for the new era, which utilizes natural gas to reduce iron ore to produce Direct Reduced Iron (DRI). As Direct Reduction Plants are not built on the same, enormous scale as Blast Furnaces, their investment costs are lower, and they have been mainly constructed in developing countries where natural gas is relatively inexpensive. Recently, however, even in developed countries, such as the United States, Direct Reduction Plants are drawing more and more attention as a way to provide a stable supply source of pure iron, substituting steel scrap.

Recently, while the production of steel via the Blast Furnace route are increasing only slightly, production via the Direct Reduction Plant route have dramatically increased. (From around 800,000 tons per year in 1970 to around 55,000,000 tons per year in 2005.)

Of several Direct Reduction processes producting DRI, the MIDREX ®  DR Process, which was developed and is owned by Midrex Technologies,Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kobe Steel, accounts for about 60% of world wide prodution.

As a licensee of the MIDREX ®   DR Process, Kobe Steel has supplied many MIDREX ™   DR Plants all over the world. We take pride in the fact that our plants are able to perform at or above capacity with smooth and stable operations. In recent years, Kobe Steel together with Midrex have developed our own new process, the "FASTMET ®   Process" taking a step forward into a new field of Direct Reduction.