Siemens Metals Technologies (Siemens) has announced that the company and its consortium partner Midrex Technology have started up the world largest hot briquetted iron (HBI) production facility at Lebedinsky GOK, an iron ore producing subsidiary of the Russian steel and mining group Metalloinvest Holding (Metalloinvest).
The new facility, which has an annual capacity of 1.4 million metric tons, was completed within 30 months and started up operations in October 2007. Performance guarantees were achieved in December 2007.
The feed for the new HBI facility consists entirely of pellets produced from Lebedinsky GOK iron ore.