Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel’s (Kobelco) US subsidiary Midrex Technologies (Midrex) has started production of Direct Rolled Iron (DRI) at its Algerian Qatari Steel (AQS) plant in Algeria. The Midrex plant’s annual capacity is 2.3mn mt per annum.
Midrex made the first charge of hot DRI (HDRI) to AQS’s electric arc furnace (EAF) on Mar 24, Kobelco noted in a statement on Wednesday. The company can supply both HDRI and cold DRI to AQS, and it plans to increase its capacity to over 3.6mn mt per year, Kobelco noted in a separate statement on Tuesday.
The AQS complex has a combined annual production capacity of 6.1mn mt currently, which includes two EAF melt shops and three rolling mills to manufacture reinforcing bars and wire rods.