Steel manufacturing giant United States Steel said Wednesday its direct reduced iron facility at Big River Steel Works in Osceola will cost $1.9 billion and create more than 200 jobs.
Plans to build the first-of-its-kind facility in the United States were announced in November. In total, the Pittsburgh-based company plans to invest $3 billion into its Arkansas operations by 2028, as a part of a larger $11 billion investment into its domestic footprint on the heels of a $15 billion “historic partnership” with its new owner, Japanese manufacturing giant Nippon Steel.
The direct reduced iron process produces high-purity iron by removing oxygen from iron ore pellets using reducing gases such as natural gas or hydrogen rather than melting it in a blast furnace. U.S. Steel will use iron pellets from the company’s Minnesota Ore Operations to produce iron feed stock for the company’s electric arc furnaces at Big River.
“This $1.9 billion investment strengthens our ability to create steel that is truly mined, melted, made in America, from start to finish … our partnership with Nippon Steel helped accelerate this investment years sooner than would have otherwise been possible,” U.S. Steel Chief Executive Officer David Burritt said in a statement.
A news release said the project is expected to support approximately 200 full-time Big River Steel Works employees and 35 full-time embedded contractor positions and bring an estimated 2,000 construction jobs at peak.
Details of the plan add to the news about ongoing growth in Mississippi County’s steel industry. Japanese steel firm Marubeni-Otichu Steel America Inc. announced last week that it was building a $37 million steel processing plant in Osceola. Steel rebar manufacturer Hybar LLC in Osceola said last year it plans on investing $1 billion into a new facility in Osceola.
Clif Chitwood, president of Mississippi County’s economic development arm, called the announcement “great for the county” in a Wednesday interview.
“We’re rapidly becoming Pittsburgh,” Chitwood said. “All of Northeast Arkansas is going to regain its rightful place as a key economic part of Arkansas. It is not going to fade away, which is what would have happened if we hadn’t concentrated on re-industrializing ourselves.”
Chitwood said that the county has seen $12 billion in private investment and 10,000 jobs added since the early 2000s, when the county implemented a half-cent sales tax.
Burritt said last year that the direct reduced iron facility will be coupled with a new grain-oriented electrical steel facility, which can be considered an “additional enhancement” to the existing Big River site. In total, the new investments will amount to $3 billion.
The company says it employs 1,712 people in Arkansas, primarily at its Big River Steel facility, with more to come after the new construction projects are complete.
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