JSW plans Ohio investment

JSW Steel USA, a Texas-based business unit of India’s JSW Group, has announced plans to invest more than $119 million in plant and equipment at its Mingo Junction, Ohio, scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill.

The company says the expenditures will allow the mill to “to better serve growing markets in the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors.” JSW Steel USA says the planned investments will enable the company to produce “made in USA” slabs for those two sectors.

“These new investments reiterate JSW’s commitment to a sustainable and green future,” says Parth Jindal, director at JSW Group. “The operational upgrades being made at JSW Steel USA are a progressive step toward achieving our long-term ESG [environmental, social and governance] goals. These investments and projects will help us in producing high-quality ‘melted and manufactured in USA’ steel products required by our customers in the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors.”

At an early May foreign direct investment (FDI) event in Ohio where the investment was announced, United States Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves said JSW representatives told him they plan to exceed an initial $119.4 million commitment and invest up to $145 million at the Mingo Junction plant.

“JSW Steel’s continued investment in Mingo Junction demonstrates the company’s confidence to grow its global footprint with talent from Ohio,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says. “Choosing Ohio for this expansion brings good-paying jobs to Jefferson County [Ohio] while helping secure a stronger domestic supply chain for steel manufactured in the United States.”

“The investment at JSW’s Mingo Junction facility will bring new jobs and the latest technology for more sustainable methods of steel production,” says J.P. Nauseef, president and CEO of the economic development agency JobsOhio. JSW indicates more than 25 jobs will be created after the expenditures.

The project is receiving government support in southern Ohio. In mid-April, the Jefferson County Port Authority approved a reimbursement resolution in anticipation of issuing $160 million in tax-exempt conduit revenue bonds to facilitate the project at the JSW mill in Mingo Junction.

The Mingo Junction mill was the site of a fire last year reportedly caused by molten metal. The EAF plant was built about 20 years ago by the now-defunct Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. and also was owned by Russia-based OAO Severstal and an investment group known as Acero Junction Inc. before being purchased by JSW Group in 2018.