The implementation of the Mikhailovsky hot briquetted iron (HBI) project by Russia’s Metalloinvest within the scope of the latter’s investment program appears to have been postponed. According to the governor of the Kursk Region in the Russian Federation, Roman Starovoyt, the terms of implementation of the first projects in the territory of the "Third Pole" economic pole in the Kursk region have been postponed by one year due to the selection of import-substituting technologies. “The delay is not due to financing problems. There is no problem with that. It is related to the selection of technologies. Relationships have to be sought with other partners,” he said.
In 2021, Mikhailovsky HBI, which was jointly established by USM and the Mikhailovsky mining and beneficiation complex (GOK), part of Metalloinvest, contracted Primetals Technologies and consortium partner Midrex Technologies to supply a new HBI plant. Production was expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2024, with a designed annual capacity at 2.08 million mt.