Metalloinvest, a leading manufacturer and supplier of iron ore products and hot briquetted iron in the world market, one of the regional producers of high-quality steel, presented its vision of the prospects for the development of high-quality iron ore products and electric steel in world.
During the conference, the participants also discussed the development trends of iron ore raw materials markets, related environmental problems and possible solutions, the current situation with pricing.
In his speech, Yuri Gavrilov, Director for Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions of Metalloinvest, noted that by 2030 experts predict an increase in the share of electric steel in total steel production from the current 21 to 37 percent. The change in the ratio is due to the growing demand for the production of high-quality electric steel, a decrease in the quality of scrap metal and stricter environmental requirements.
“By 2024, one of the world's largest HBI plants will be built in the Kursk Region, which will operate in close technological cooperation with Metalloinvest,” said Yuri Gavrilov.
The design capacity of the new production will be more than 2 million tons per year. Mikhailovsky GOK them. A.V. Varicheva will become a supplier of high quality iron ore raw materials for the new plant. The project will be implemented using the latest technologies and will become not only one of the largest, but also the most modern HBI plant in the world. In terms of its composition, HBI is similar to cast iron and is used as an additive to scrap metal in steel smelting, but, unlike scrap metal, it practically does not contain foreign impurities. Compared to pig iron production, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in HBI production are 50% less.
The new metallization plant is initially designed on the principles of carbon-free metallurgy - with the prospect of a complete transition to the use of "green" hydrogen as a reducing agent. This project creates the basis for the development of green metallurgy and the transition of the global industry to environmentally friendly steel production technologies.
The site of the new HBI plant also allows in the future to implement, independently or with interested partners, a steel production project, where hot DRI will be supplied directly to the new ESPC. Thus, a sustainable production of high-quality steel with control of the entire cycle can be created, which meets all promising requirements in the field of ecology and low transport costs when exporting products.
Metalloinvest continues to improve the quality of concentrate, while focusing on increasing the production of high-margin products - pellets and HBI. The Company believes that premium pellets, hot briquetted and direct reduced iron (HBI /DRI) are the future of green metallurgy.
Currently, Metalloinvest is implementing a comprehensive program that will radically improve the quality of iron ore products at Mikhailovsky GOK named after A.V. Varichev and increase production. In 2020, Metalloinvest mastered the production of new commercial products - premium quality iron ore pellets (DR-grade) intended for subsequent metallization. The characteristics of the pellets meet the requirements of the world market for high quality products. In 2022, the construction of a concentrate re-enrichment building will be completed, which will annually produce up to 17 million tons of high-quality concentrate for subsequent pellet production at the pelletizing plant of MGOK.
The Global Iron Ore Conference is hosted by Fastmarkets, an international publisher and information provider for the global steel, non-ferrous and scrap metal markets. This year's event was also attended by leading players in the iron ore and steel industry - Midrex Technologies, Tenova, ArcellorMittal, Anglo American, Samarco and others.
