The Corex process, commercialized by Voest Alpine, combines an iron melter/coal gasifier vessel with a pre-reduction shaft to produce a liquid product that is very similar to blast furnace hot metal. Coal, oxygen, and pre-reduced iron are fed into the melter/gasifier to melt the iron and produce a highly reducing off-gas. The primarily CO-H2 off-gas is then fed through a pre-reduction shaft furnace, where lump and/or agglomerated ore is reduced to over 90 percent for feeding into the melter/gasifier. The gas exiting the pre-reduction shaft still has a very high energy content, which can be used elsewhere in the steel plant or for electric power generation. Voest Alpine and POSCO jointly continued to develop the original commercialized process, leading to several important modifications including the limited direct reduction and smelting of ore fines. If the high energy content of the exhaust gas from the reduction shaft is not utilized, the Corex process requires a relatively high fuel rate as compared with a blast furnace. Although Corex has a relatively high capital cost, it is so far the only smelting process to be operated on a commercial scale. The first commercial Corex plant with a capacity of 300,000 tons per year began production in 1989. Other installations are operating, under construction, or planned in Korea, South Africa, Chile,and India. voestalpine AG is an international steel company based in Linz, Austria. ... // The Pohang Iron and Steel Company, or POSCO (KSE: 005490) (NYSE: PKX) (TYO: 5412 ) (LSE: PIDD), is the fifth largest steel producer in the world based in Pohang, South Korea. ... Chemical reduction, or smelting, is a form of extractive metallurgy. ...

Information gleaned from the following article. Emerging Technologies for Iron and Steelmaking