A major investment is kickstarting America’s steel industry.
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JSW Steel USA plans to invest $500 million to build a new factory in the U.S. Combined with a previous announcement that JSW will modernize an existing plant, the Indian-owned company is making a total investment of $1 billion after President Trump’s tax reform and tariffs on imported steel.
“The Trump administration was the driver behind giving us in the U.S. the ability to compete for capital,” JSW Steel USA CEO John Hritz said during a First on FOX Business interview with Edward Lawrence on Thursday.
The Houston-based company has agreed to acquire an Acero Junction facility in Mingo Junction, Ohio, for $80.9 million.
Through its parent company, JSW Group, it’s investing upwards of $500 million in the old steel plant that was built in 1929. The project is expected to generate an estimated 300 permanent jobs in a town of just 3,400 people.
“We are going to revitalize that facility and that entire community,” Hritz said.
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JSW Steel USA says it was forced to compete for investment funds within its own company to become the lowest cost and highest quality steel producer in the country.
“We have demonstrated that the return on investment that we can gather in this country is going to be outstanding,” Hritz said.
Trump’s efforts to enforce a number of measures aimed at preventing steel and aluminum dumping by China are intended to create a level playing field for America’s steel industry.
“It’s what the president did and [Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross about making a fair playing field regarding stopping the dumping of steel from countries that were dumping illegally,” Hritz said.
In March, JSW Steel announced plans to invest $500 million in its existing plant in Baytown, Texas.
Hritz told FOX Business’ Liz Claman that the company currently has 500 people on site and is expected to hire 500 new employees in high-tech jobs.
“We need a lot of great craftsmen,” he said in March. “We need every facet of people that you can imagine.”
