Austria-based voestalpine broke ground Wednesday on the construction of a EUR 550 million (US$760 million) direct reduction plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. The plant, which represents the largest foreign investment in the history of company, will commence production in 2016 with an annual capacity of 2 million tons of HBI and DRI. Half of the supply will be used to supply the company’s Austrian locations in Linz and Donawitz--which will significantly reduce production costs in Europe--and the other half will be used as a strategic reserve and sold to long-term partners.
“We investigated 17 locations in eight countries for this project,” said Wolfgang Eder, CEO of voestalpine AG and Head of voestalpine’s Steel Division. “In the end, Texas was the most promising on all key criteria, such as logistics, energy supply, well-trained employees, and political environment.”
The property is located on Corpus Christi Bay, covers an area of about two square kilometers, 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,” stated Eder.
“Moreover,” he continued, “this investment also creates an additional long-term growth option in North America for the voestalpine Group.”
The construction of the plant will require 20,000 tons of constructional steel and 13,000 tons of mechanical equipment. Construction of the plant will employ about 1,000 people for a period of one and a half years, and the finished facility is expected to employ 150 people.
