U.S. Steel held a groundbreaking ceremony for a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant at its Big River 2 facility in Osceola, Arkansas. Attendees included CEO Burritt and others, underscoring the company's investment plan once again.
U.S. Steel, a subsidiary of Nippon Steel, held a groundbreaking ceremony for a DRI plant at its Big River 2 facility in Osceola, Arkansas, on 30 October. The new DRI plant is expected to have annual production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes, and the investment plan was approved in April. The DRI plant is scheduled to be built adjacent to the electric arc furnace at the Big River 2 facility, which was already completed and started operations in 2024.
USS CEO David Burritt (デーヴィッド・バリット), EVP and CSO Masashi Imoto (井元正士), Junichi Matsunaga (松永淳一) and others attended the ceremony. CEO Burritt described the investment as demonstrating “the very essence of USS,” while EVP Brown said it would provide “greater control over critical raw materials and improve supply reliability.”
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (サラ・ハッカビー・サンダース) said, “Steel will be essential to the large-scale construction boom expected in the United States. We want that steel to be made by the workers of Arkansas,” expressing her support. Installation of the DRI plant is part of Big River Steel's (BRS) Phase 2 investment and will contribute to the expansion of BRS, which will have production capacity of approximately 6 million tonnes per year.