According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), global direct reduced iron (DRI) production in May this year totaled 4.86 million metric tons, rising by 1.7 percent compared to April and up by 6.04 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, in the first five months of 2010, global DRI output came to 24.03 million metric tons, rising by 11.56 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
The worldsteel data show that India is the largest DRI producer among the countries surveyed in May, with a DRI output of 1.73 million metric tons, up 3.29 percent month on month and down 1.43 percent year on year, followed by Iran and Mexico, with outputs of 788,000 mt and 480,000 mt respectively.