New HBI customer: Big River Steel
A new key customer has been added only a few months before construction of the new direct reduction plant of voestalpine is completed in Corpus Christi, Texas. An offtake agreement has been signed for the next four years with American steelmaker Big River Steel.
The company has its headquarters in the United States and has now secured supply of hot-briquetted iron (HBI), a high-quality prematerial in steelmaking to be produced by voestalpine at the new location in Texas to the tune of roughly two million tons a year.
In the state of Arkansas, Big River Steel is currently building a modern steel works specialized in the production of high-quality flat-rolled products and will be taking delivery of 240,000 tons of hot-briquetted iron (HBI) each year from voestalpine in Corpus Christi. Several customers have signed long-term supply contracts over the past few months with voestalpine for high-quality HBI.
A total of 60 percent of the planned production volume will be supplied to third parties, primarily steelmaking companies within the NAFTA zone. The remaining 40 percent amounting to a total of 800,000 tons, will be shipped to voestalpine locations in Austria for processing.
The new order underscores the growing market position of the voestalpine Group inside the NAFTA zone and at the same time secures capacity utilization of the direct reduction plant, even before it is put into operation.Wolfgang Eder, CEO
The strong trend towards production of high-quality steel products in the United States requires additional volumes of iron-ore-based prematerial such as HBI.
