IRON ORE
By William S. Kirk
Mr. Kirk became the commodity specialist for iron ore in 1992 and was previously
responsible for cobalt, depleted uranium,
hafnium, nickel, radium, thorium, and zirconium. The domestic survey data
were compiled by Debra A. Nolan, statistical
assistant, Branch of Data Collection and Coordination. The world production
table was prepared by Amy D. Durham and
Ronald H. Hatch, International Data Section.


Iron ore is essential to the economy
and national security of the United States.
As the basic raw material from which
iron and steel is made, its supply is
critical to any industrial country. Scrap
is used as a supplement in steelmaking,
but is limited as a major feed material
because there is a limited quantity of
high-quality scrap.
Nineteen-ninety-three was a year of
recovery for the domestic iron ore
industry as consumption rose by 2.3%.
Production and shipments also rose
slightly from 1992 levels. The increases
were attributed to a 6.9 % increase in raw
steel production.
Production in the United States posted
a moderate gain, while production in
China rose by 19 %. Australia and Brazil
continued to be the leading exporters of
iron ore with a combined total of close to
60% of the world total.


DOMESTIC DATA COVERAGE


U.S. production data for iron ore are
developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines
(USBM) from two separate, voluntary
surveys of domestic operations. The
annual  'Iron Ore"  survey  (1066-A)
provides the basic data used in this
report. Of 39 addressees to whom the
1066-A form was sent, 31 responded,
representing 100% of total production
shown in tables 1 through 4. In past
years, production for nonrespondents to
the annual survey was estimated from
monthly surveys (1066-M), from railroad
reports, or from reported production
levels in prior years. This information
may be supplemented by employment
data, mine inspection reports, and


information from consumers.
Data on consumption and stocks of
iron ore and agglomerates at iron and
steel plants were provided by the
American Iron Ore Association (AIOA).
AIOA also provided data on ore
shipments from loading docks on the
upper Great Lakes as well as receipts at
transfer docks and furnace yards
nationwide. The dock and steel plant
data were compiled jointly by AIOA and
the American Iron and Steel Institute
(AISI). Data on consumption of iron ore
for nonsteel end uses were compiled from
information gathered from other USBM
surveys.


BACKGROUND


Economic Factors
The United States has exhausted the
reserves of high-grade direct-shipping ore
it once had in Michigan and Minnesota.
Almost all of the ore being mined now is
low-grade taconite, which requires costly
beneficiation and pelletizing. Moreover,
the taconite mining and   pelletizing
complexes are deep in the interior of the
country, far from any saltwater harbor.
Because of the advantages of Great Lakes
shipping, U.S. pellets are currently
competitive at Gary, Cleveland, and
Detroit. However, high rail costs put
U.S. pellets at a disadvantage in the mid-
Atlantic States and Alabama. Imported
ores and agglomerates from Brazil,
Canada, and Venezuela constitute the
bulk of the iron units consumed at these
coastal steelworks.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is a mixed
blessing for the mining industry, being a


bottleneck for ore carriers as well as an
inexpensive means of transport in the
Great Lakes region. The eight locks in
the Welland Canal and the seven locks in
the St. Lawrence River are all similar in
size and have a gate-to-gate length of 262
meters (m). The relatively short length
of each lock prevents oceangoing ore
carriers longer than 222 m from entering
the Great Lakes. At the same time,
domestic "1,000 footers" cannot leave the
Lakes. Foreign ore bound for Indiana or
Ohio either has to be offloaded onto
smaller vessels in the gulf of the St.
Lawrence or transferred to rail cars at
Baltimore or Philadelphia.  In some
cases, ore is barged from the Port of
New Orleans up the Mississippi River to
steelworks in the Ohio River Valley and
western Pennsylvania. The high rail
costs that keep domestic ores from going
to the coastal steelworks also keep foreign
ores out of the inland steelmaking
regions.
Operating Factors
Statistics  on  employment  and
productivity in the U.S. iron ore industry
in 1993, shown in table 2, were derived
from quarterly employment data supplied
by the Mine Safety and Health
Administration (MSHA) and from
production data derived from USBM
surveys. Both sets of data were obtained
from producers' reports.
The statistics include production
workers employed at mines,
concentrators, and pelletizing plants and
in repair and maintenance shops, but do
not include 844 persons engaged in
management, research, or office work at


IRON ORE-1993


463




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