Austria-based steel producer voestalpine has announced that it has signed another agreement with Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) for the supply of 400,000 mt of hot briquetted iron (HBI) produced in Texas.
Voestalpine broke ground in April for the direct reduction plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. Starting in 2016, this plant, at €550 million the company's largest-ever foreign investment, will produce two million mt of HBI annually, a pre-material for the production of high-quality steel.
The Mexican steel manufacturer, which is based in Monclóva, near Monterrey, will be using the HBI in a recently installed electric arc furnace, thus enabling production of higher-quality steel grades. It will also make AHMSA independent of the volatile Mexican scrap market. The first deliveries will begin directly after the scheduled launch of operations of the direct reduction plant in early 2016.
Voestalpine stated that, currently, negotiations are ongoing with other interested companies in the NAFTA region and in Europe.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in May 2013 voestalpine signed a memorandum of understanding with AHMSA, according to which the latter will source several hundred thousand metric tons of high-quality hot briquetted iron (HBI) annually from 2016 onwards, for its mill in Monclóva.