MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. The share of the green metallurgy in steel production will grow while blast furnace steelmaking and converter steelmaking will shrink, Alisher Usmanov, the main shareholder of the Metalloinvest company said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
"We are working on the system for the production of high-quality, low level of CO2 raw materials for metallurgy and electrometallurgy. This is a very serious topic. It will affect all of Europe. Because the number of blast-furnaces and converters will be gradually shrinking, while [the share of] electrometallurgy will grow. And it will require the very raw materials that we produce," Usmanov said.
"Now we are the leaders. Naturally, now many will start to catch up with us," commented Usmanov. "Then, one by one, we are already building a new [hot bricketed iron (HBI)] complex every 3-4 years. Now, we are already building both the fourth and the fifth at the same time. Two at once. This will give us 10 million tonnes [of HBI] … considering that the charge of metallurgical enterprises contains 20-30%. Classic enterprises will join the run later, of course. But in Europe, for example, Germany produces 35 million tonnes [of steel]. We regard them as one of the springboards for providing Europe with clean raw materials. We see this as an important task for Metalloinvest today".
About company
Metalloinvest is the world leader in the production of merchant hot briquetted iron (HBI), the world’s second-largest pellet producer, and the largest iron ore company in Russia and the CIS.
Metalloinvest includes the Lebedinsky and Mikhailovsky mining and processing plants, the Oskol electrometallurgical plant, the Ural Steel plant, and the Ural Scrap Company scrap enterprise.
Alisher Usmanov controls 49% of the company's shares.