Austrian steelmaker voestalpine has announced that it will build a direct reduction plant just outside the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, US.
The construction is estimated to take about 15 months to complete. The plant, which will be built with an investment of around €550 million, will have a designed annual capacity of around two million mt of hot briquetted iron (HBI) and direct reduced iron (DRI). Production operations are expected to begin in early 2016.
According to voestalpine's statement, direct reduction ensures the future of the company's Austrian production sites in Linz and Donawitz, providing them with access to cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly HBI and DRI. The direct reduction plant will produce high quality DRI and HBI from iron ore pellets. DRI and HBI are comparable to the highest quality scrap or pig iron, and are therefore an excellent pre-material for the production of crude steel.
Voestalpine said that this investment will also provide the company an additional growth option in North America over the long term.