According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), global direct reduced iron (DRI) production in March this year totaled 5.02 million metric tons, increasing by 7.36 percent compared to February and up by 15.62 percent year on year. This was the highest monthly output volume achieved since October 2008.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2010, global DRI output came to 14.52 million metric tons, rising by 14.61 percent, compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
The worldsteel data show that India is the largest DRI producer among the countries surveyed in March, with a DRI output of 1.72 million metric tons, up 1. 6 percent month on month and down 7.83 percent year on year, followed by Iran and Venezuela, with outputs of 725,000 mt and 515,000 mt respectively.
