The voestalpine Group today opened its new direct reduction plant in Corpus Christi, Texas after around two-and-a-half years of construction. At $740 million, (EUR 550 million), the plant is the largest investment ever made in the US by an Austrian company.
Each year it will use natural gas to produce 2 million metric tons of high-quality HBI (Hot Briquetted Iron), 40 percent of which (800,000 tons) will cover internal requirements. The remaining 60 percent of the production volume will go to external partners, with the corresponding offtake agreements already having ensured full capacity utilization for the next four years.
The new plant covers an area of two square kilometers. The plant’s own deep-sea port can currently handle five million tons of material each year (3 million tons of iron ore pellets and 2 million tons of HBI).
Across the Group, using the HBI produced in Texas in voestalpine blast furnaces and steel plants will lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 5 percent. At the same time, the new plant opens up further technological possibilities for the future.
“We are systematically working to gradually decarbonize steel production, first by the partial substitution of coal and coke with gas-based bridging technologies, and then by the long-term, gradual use of CO2-neutral hydrogen,” said Wolfgang Eder, Chairman of the Management Board of voestalpine AG, in a statement to media. “With adequate availability, in future ‘green’ hydrogen could also replace natural gas as a reducing gas in Texas, making possible the emission-free production of HBI,” says Eder.
In accordance with Group Strategy 2020, the plant opening is intended to increase revenue generated in this region from the company’s current level of $1.4 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) to $3.4 billion (EUR 3 billion) by the business year 2020-21.