The Next Iron Age

摘要

U.S. production of direct-reduced iron has had its ups and downs in the past 40 years, but the industry received a near-fatal blow in 2000, when U.S. natural gas costs spiked and scrap and finished steel prices plummeted. Production fell 92 percent in one year, from 1.56 million mt in 2000 to 120,000 mt in 2001, according to data from Midrex Technologies (Charlotte, N.C.). "Every consultant at the time said there would never be another direct-reduction plant built in the United States because its natural gas prices were never going to come down," says Christopher Ravenscroft, marketing manager for Midrex.