Reduced transport and world mineral trade
Direct reduction

After timid beginnings that were more experiments and trials than real regular commercial operations, the transport of reduced ores took off around 1988/1989, as shown in figure 10 (from MIDREX). Nevertheless, these statistical data are not easy to interpret, especially those concerning overland trade (railroads and, sometimes, trucks...); however, they are in fairly good agreement with our own estimates, as shown in table 7. MIDREX estimates show that there is more and more transport of HBI (7.6 Mt in 2003), but there is still a significant trade in DRI, and the ISPAT group (the world's largest DRI producer) remains a supporter of the production and transport of DRI, which accounted for a total of 4.6 Mt in 2003. It should be noted that land transport has grown,...