According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), global direct reduced iron (DRI) production in the 11 countries accounting for approximately 83 percent of total world DRI production in 2010 totaled 4.5 million metric tons in October this year, decreasing 2.4 percent as compared to the previous month and down by 16.1 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, world DRI output came to 47.13 million metric tons in the first 10 months of this year, decreasing by 11.1 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
The worldsteel data show that India was the largest DRI producer among the countries surveyed in October this year. India's estimated DRI output was 1.8 million metric tons in the given month, up 3.5 percent month on month. India was followed by Iran, Mexico and Saudi Arabia in October this year, with estimated outputs of 945,000 mt, 515,000 mt and 458,000 mt respectively.