U.S. Steel announced Tuesday that its Edgar Thomson Works is getting a hot strip mill, part of a $14 billion investment package across all company facilities from new owner Nippon Steel.
In a 17-page report on its integration with Japan’s largest steelmaker, U.S. Steel described the planned mill as “state of the art” but offered few other details.
Nippon promised leading up to the sale — which went through in June following approval from President Donald Trump — about $11 billion in upgrades across all U.S. Steel facilities by 2028 and $14 billion total. The acquisition itself cost nearly $15 billion.
Along the way, the firm pledged at least $1 billion to replace or upgrade the existing hot strip mill at the Mon Valley Works. The announcement was interpreted by many as referring to the Irvin Works, which houses an 87-year-old hot strip mill.
Instead, U.S. Steel is shutting down that portion of the West Mifflin steel processing plant and building a new hot strip mill at the Edgar Thomson Works, which straddles Braddock and North Braddock.
Hot strip mills reheat thick steel slabs and roll them into thin strips or coils.
The Irvin Works will continue finishing steel products, primarily for appliances.
U.S. Steel will file permit applications with Allegheny County in the next several months, according to Amanda Malkowski, a company spokeswoman. She said additional details of the project will be released soon.
The report claims the partnership between U.S. Steel and Nippon will eventually generate an additional $3 billion in gross earnings. Of that, it said, $500 million will come from operational efficiencies, the rest from returns on capital investments.
Spending on facilities will “protect and create” more than 100,000 jobs, the report said. Malkowski declined to comment on how many of those are new jobs.
In September, U.S. Steel’s board approved a $100 million slag recycler at the Edgar Thomson Works as well as $200 million to improve the hot strip mill at the Gary Works in Indiana.
The new equipment in Braddock will allow slag, a waste material created from smelting iron, to skip the landfill and instead be sold to companies that make cement and build roads. It will also trap more harmful pollutants, the company claims to the skepticism of some environmental groups.
The board agreed on Monday to spend $75 million for a new line at Fairfield Tubular Operations in Alabama that will primarily make products for the oil and gas industry.
No other major investments in the Mon Valley Works are expected this year. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show Nippon plans to sink $100 million into these facilities this year, $700 million in 2026, $700 million in 2027 and $900 million in 2028 for a total of $2.4 billion.
The filings did not say which projects the money would go toward.
History has taught workers and Mon Valley communities to watch the rollout of these funds carefully. In 2019, U.S. Steel revealed plans for a $1 billion upgrade to the Edgar Thomson Works, including what it called an “endless casting” mill, only to call off the project two years later.
Tuesday’s report also noted Nippon has sent nearly 50 experts to U.S. Steel’s plants and company headquarters in Pittsburgh to find operational efficiencies and support the implementation of new technologies. Three of the Nippon agents are at the Edgar Thomson Works.
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