Thyssenkrupp’s render of the hydrogen steel plant set for Duisburg, Germany

Vinci subsidiary Cobra IS has won a €74m contract for piping and mechanical works on a major hydrogen-powered steel plant Thyssenkrupp is building in Duisburg, Germany.

Cobra IS was picked by the plant’s builder, SMS Group, which won a €1.8bn order for the plant in March last year.

Billed as one of the world’s biggest industrial decarbonisation projects and Germany’s first steel plant to run exclusively on green hydrogen, the new plant will produce 2.5 million tonnes of direct reduced iron a year.

By burning green hydrogen, created by using renewable energy to break water molecules down into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis, the plant will save some 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.

In February this year, Thyssenkrupp called for tenders to supply 143,000 tonnes of hydrogen annually.

It said the plant would start using hydrogen in 2028, with the ramp-up to full hydrogen operation in 2029.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is contributing €700m to the project.

When SMS Group received the order to build the plant, the state’s minister-president Hendrik Wüst said: “The contract award to the Düsseldorf-based SMS group represents a great decision for the climate, for thyssenkrupp and for the location of North Rhine-Westphalia.It shows in our federal state, there is not only the knowledge to produce basic materials carbon-neutrally, but also the competence to build the necessary plants.”