U.S. Steel says it will invest $100 million in Braddock works

After its acquisition by Japanese giant Nippon Steel earlier this year, U.S. Steel says it will invest $100 million in a new slag recycler at its Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock.

The company said in a release it has submitted an “air construction permit” to the Allegheny County Health Department, and it hopes to begin construction next year.

Slag is a byproduct of steel production that mainly consists of materials drawn out of molten mixes as impurities. It can be used in turn for other industrial products like cement.

“This is an opportunity to reduce air emissions and waste that would have otherwise gone to a landfill, while also generating additional revenue through the sale of byproducts,” the company said in the release.

Active since 1875, the Edgar Thomson Works is among the oldest continually operating steel mills in the country. It is the centerpiece of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works.

The announcement comes about a month after an explosion killed two workers and injured several others at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, which is also part of the Mon Valley Works.

In addition the recycler in Braddock, the company announced plans to invest about $200 million to improve the Gary Works hot strip mill. Located in Gary, Ind. on the shore of Lake Michigan, the site is the largest integrated mill in North America.

Nippon Steel previously committed to invest $11 billion in U.S. Steel’s facilities over the next three years, including at least $1 billion in the Mon Valley.