Arab Steel reported that 3 Arab countries were among the top ten Direct Reduction Iron producers in 2009. Saudi Arabia came in the Arab lead by more than 5 million tonne followed by Egypt by 2.9 million tonne and Qatar 2.1 million tonne this came in a report issued by MIDREX Company which got a copy of.
The overall world DRI production in 2009 reached 64.4 million tonne with 11.2 million tonne of that attributed to Arab countries accounting for 17.4% of the overall global output. Arab DRI production in 2009 marked a rise by 3.5% compared to 2008 production which was at 10.86 million tonne.
Meanwhile, Arab countries are expected to achieve an increase in DRI production after UAE came on stream along with many new DRI projects scheduled to enter into production during the two coming years.
The Arab region as a whole is forecast to become the second largest DRI producer worldwide, coming directly after India which produced one third of the global production in 2009 with more than 22 million tonne followed by Iran which came second globally in terms of production volume that reached 8.2 million tonne.