voestalpine breaks ground for 2 million tonnes HBI/DRI plant at Texas in US
After about a year of preparation, Mr Wolfgang Eder CEO of voestalpine, broke ground for the construction of a direct reduction plant in Texas in US.
This EUR 550 million investment is the largest foreign investment in the history of the Austrian Group. The voestalpine Texas LLC plant is being constructed at the La Quinta Trade Gateway Terminal in close proximity to the City of Corpus Christi.
Starting in 2016, the plant will produce 2 million tonnes of Hot Briquetted Iron and Direct Reduced Iron annually and will supply Austrian locations, such as Linz and Donawitz, with sponge iron as a premium raw material. With the new facility, voestalpine can significantly reduce production costs in Europe.
The highly automated plant will create 150 jobs.
Mr Eder said that “The property is superbly located right on Corpus Christi Bay, covers an area of about two square kilometres, and provides direct sea access for large ships. With our investment in Corpus Christi, we are significantly enhancing the efficiency of the use of raw materials by our company and at the same time demonstrating that this is possible while being responsible with the environment. The Austrian plants in Linz and Donawitz will obtain access to high quality, environmentally friendly primary materials (HBI and DRI) and the competitiveness of the European locations will thereby be ensured over the long term.”
The direct reduction plant will use iron ore pellets to produce high-quality DRI/HBI (sponge iron) comparable to the highest quality scrap or pig iron, which is an excellent primary material for the production of crude steel. In contrast to the coke and coal based pure blast furnace route, only natural gas is used as a reduction agent in direct reduction, which is more environmentally friendly. The price of natural gas in the US is about a half of what it is in Europe. The plant with its 150 employees will produce two million tons of DRI/HBI annually, of which about half will be shipped by sea to the steel plants in Linz and Donawitz. The other half will be used as a strategic reserve and sold to long term partners.
The construction of the plant is a heavy construction project in the truest sense. The EUR 550 million investment covers 20,000 tonnes of constructional steel and 13,000 tonnes of mechanical equipment. Construction of the plant will employ about 1,000 people for a period of one and a half years.
The use of natural gas instead of coke and coal in the reduction process makes a significant contribution to improvement of the CO2 balance and is an important step in achieving the very demanding internal energy and climate goals.
Source – Strategic Research Institute