Direct reduced iron compacted while still hot — above about 650 °C — into dense, pillow-shaped briquettes. Compaction closes most of the porosity that makes DRI react with air and water, so HBI can be shipped, stored in the open and traded internationally like a commodity. It is a clean, low-residual iron unit for electric arc furnaces, basic oxygen converters and blast furnaces.
Also called
HBI
Hot briquetted iron
Briquetted DRI
DRI (A)
Metallics
Iron briquettes
AR
الحديد المقولب على الساخن
ZH
热压块铁
DE
Heißbrikettiertes Eisen (HBI)
FR
Fer briqueté à chaud
ES
Hierro briqueteado en caliente
IT
Ferro bricchettato a caldo
TR
Sıcak briketlenmiş demir
RU
Горячебрикетированное железо (ГБЖ)
Main formsPillow-shaped briquettes; HBI fines and chips from handling
Typical sizesBriquettes roughly 90–140 × 40–60 × 25–35 mm, about 0.5–1 kg each
Main standardsISO 10835 (sampling), ISO 15968 (apparent density), ISO 5416 (metallic iron), IMSBC Code DRI (A)
Key gradesTotal Fe about 88–94%, metallisation 90–95%, carbon 1–2%, apparent density above 5.0 g/cm³
Typical usesEAF charge to dilute residuals in scrap, BOF coolant and iron unit, blast-furnace burden to raise output
Overview
HBI is made at the bottom of a direct-reduction shaft: instead of being cooled, the hot DRI is fed between two counter-rotating rolls with matching pockets that press it into briquettes, which are then broken apart and cooled. The result has an apparent density above 5.0 g/cm³ against about 3.5 g/cm³ for DRI pellets, and a much smaller internal surface, so it barely reoxidises and generates little hydrogen when wet.
That is what makes HBI tradable. Under the IMSBC Code it ships as DRI (A), the least restrictive DRI schedule, can be stored outside and handled with ordinary bulk equipment, while cold DRI needs covered storage and inerted holds. Its chemistry is that of the DRI it was made from: high iron, low carbon, the pellet's gangue, and almost none of the copper, tin, chromium and nickel that accumulate in scrap.
Electric arc furnace steelmakers buy HBI to dilute those residuals when making flat products, wire rod and special bar qualities from scrap. Integrated plants use it as a clean iron unit in the converter and to raise blast-furnace productivity and cut coke rate.
Merchant HBI is produced in Russia, the USA, Venezuela, Malaysia and Iran, and in the Gulf by Jindal Shadeed at Sohar in Oman, which exports HBI as well as using it. Most GCC DR plants make cold or hot DRI for their own melt shops rather than HBI, so HBI is the region's main form of traded metallics.
Forms & sizes
Briquettes
Pillow-shaped, typically about 110 × 50 × 30 mm and 0.5–0.8 kg, depending on the briquetting machine
Fines and chips
Broken material from handling, sold at a discount or remelted on site
Storage
Open-air stockpiling is possible; long exposure to rain still lowers metallisation slightly
Shipping
Bulk carriers under the IMSBC Code schedule DRI (A)
Standards & grades
HBI is sold on analysis and physical properties; these are the methods and the shipping rule contracts refer to.
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Base Materials · Dubai
