Voestalpine to sell majority stake in Texas hot-briquetted iron plant

Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine is in negotiations to sell a majority stake in its Corpus Christi, Texas, hot-briquetted iron plant, according to a company statement.

The company is currently at "an advanced stage" in talks to sell 80% of its shares, it said April 10.

Voestalpine is seeking a partnership to stabilize the business model of the plant, as it only needs part of the production capacity for its own use, it said.

"Part of Voestalpine's further participation is to be an agreement on the long-term securing of the HBI volume required in the future for the first decarbonization step at the sites in Linz and Donawitz," the company said.

Voestalpine said in June, 2021 that it will convert two blast furnaces at its Linz site and one at its Donawitz site to electric-arc furnace-based steel production by 2030 in a bid to reduce carbon emissions by 30%. HBI can be used as a scrap supplement in EAFs to produce higher grades of steel. It also is used in blast furnaces to reduce coke consumption and in blast oxygen furnaces as a low-residual substitute for scrap.

The Texas direct reduction HBI plant, which began production in late 2016, has a production capacity of 2 million mt of HBI annually, according to the company's website.

Steel Markets Conference

Date: May 2-3, 2022

Nashvilee, Tennessee, USA

The Steel Markets Conference is gathering the industry in Nashville to discuss what is on the horizon for steel and address issues around modernization, demand, risk management, decarbonization, scrap, input costs, the infrastructure bill, and more.

Click here for more info