OREANDA-NEWS. Kobe Steel Ltd. said that U.S. subsidiary Midrex Technologies Inc., together with Germany's Siemens Industry Inc., has won an order to construct a natural-gas-burning steel plant in the U.S. state of Texas.

The project, handled by Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine AG, also includes upgrading port facilities and is valued at 550 million euros, or about 71.5 billion yen. Midrex and Siemens will be responsible for building plant facilities worth an estimated 30 billion yen.

The plant will use natural gas instead of coking coal, resulting in lower carbon dioxide emissions. Its output capacity is set at 2 million tons a year, making it the largest natural-gas-fired steel mill ever constructed by Midrex.

The Austrian steelmaker decided to construct the facilities in the U.S. largely because of the availability of cheap natural shale gas there. Half the steel produced will be shipped to Austria, with the rest to be sold mainly to electric-furnace steelmakers in the U.S. and Mexico.

Kobe Steel aims to win more orders for plants that run on natural gas.