voestalpine Groundbreaking in Texas and Georgia

On April 23, 2014, Austrian Ambassador Hans PeterManz attended the groundbreaking of voestalpine’s direct reduction plant in Texas, where, after about a year of preparation, Wolfgang Eder, CEO of voestalpine, launched its construction. This EUR 550 million (approx. $ 764 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 two million tons of high-quality, environmentally-friendly primary material HBI (Hot Briquetted Iron) and DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) annually and will supply Austrian locations, such as Linz and Donawitz, with “sponge iron." With the new facility, voestalpine can significantly reduce production costs in Europe. The highly automated plant will create 150 jobs.

One day prior, about 996 miles east, voestalpine AG also celebrated the opening of its voestalpine Auto Body Parts Inc. in Cartersville, Georgia, and broke ground for phase two of its development project which will bring phs-ultraform to the U.S. for the first time.

More about the projects at http://www.voestalpine.com

Hannes RichterMay 5, 2014