Iranian mines and metals holding company Imidro has started production at a direct reduced iron (DRI) module in Neyriz in the south of the country, according to Shatanews, an Iranian domestic news agency Sunday.
The new module has a capacity of 800,000 mt/year and it is the third project in Iran using Persian Reduction, or PERED -- a technology invented and patented by MME, an Iranian-origin company registered in Germany.
It was the second DRI module started in Iran this month with have added a total of 1.6 million mt/year of new capacity.
Iran is the second biggest producer of DRI after India, with Iranian output reaching a new record last year at 20.54 million mt last year, an increase of 28.3% on 2016, according to the World Steel Association.
"The country's DRI production is more than consumption at the moment and a portion of it will be exported," Imidro CEO, Mehdi Karbasian said. "Some 1 million mt of DRI will be exported in the current Iranian year (to March 2018)."
The Iranian steel industry is based on direct reduction technology, taking advantage of the country's huge reserves of natural gas.
