HBI Production Up 4 Percent in 2008

The Hot Briquetted Iron Association (HBIA), Matthews, N.C., has announced that members produced approximately 5.6 million metric tons of HBI in 2008, a four percent increase over 2007 output, of which almost 4.5 million tons were exported internationally.

Steelmakers in Europe (including Russia and CIS countries) received the largest percentage of HBI shipments for the second consecutive year, according to production and export data compiled by the HBIA’s Transportation Committee. More than 1.7 million tons of HBI (39 percent of total exported) were shipped by the seven HBIA producer members to European iron and steel operations.

North America was the destination for almost 1.2 million tons of HBI last year, which was an increase of 3 percent over 2007 shipments, followed by Asia (566,000 tons or 13 percent of shipments), Africa (514,000 tons or 11 percent of shipments) and South America (469,000 tons or 10 percent of shipments), according to the press release.

HBIA producer members include COMSIGUA; CVG Ferrominera Orinoco; JSC Lebedinsky Mining & Dressing Plant; MATESI; Orinoco Iron; VENPRECAR and Vikram Ispat. Qatar Steel Co. was an HBIA producer member for part of 2008.