Austrian steelmaker voestalpine AG has announced that it has signed an agreement with US-based steelmaker Big River Steel to supply hot briquetted iron (HBI) produced by its Corpus Christi plant in Texas. Accordingly, from 2017 onwards voestalpine will deliver up to 240,000 mt of hot briquetted iron (HBI) annually to Big River Steel for a period of four years.
Voestalpine’s CEO Wolfgang Eder stated that the new order not only underscores the growing market position of the voestalpine Group inside the NAFTA region, it also secures full capacity utilization of the direct reduction plant, even before it is put into operation.
The company’s HBI plant in Texas is currently in the final construction phase and, once built, will be the largest and most modern of its kind in the world. The run-up phase is scheduled for the coming summer months.