Posted on 04 Nov 2026
US Steel has broken ground on 30 October on a $1.9 billion direct reduced iron (DRI) plant at its Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas.
The investment will link the company's Minnesota iron ore mines with electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking in Arkansas, Kallanish learns from a company statement.
The plant will sit alongside Big River 2, allowing hot DRI to be fed directly into its EAFs to support lower-emission steelmaking for the automotive, appliance and solar sectors. DRI is produced by removing oxygen from iron ore without melting it and can replace prime scrap, improving cost competitiveness and supply security. The material can also be converted into hot briquetted iron (HBI) for shipment to other sites.
“This investment showcases what US Steel does best,” said president and chief executive David Burritt. “From mining iron ore in Minnesota to producing advanced steel in Arkansas, our people are turning vision into reality.”
Daniel Brown, executive vice president advanced technology steelmaking and chief operating officer of Big River Steel Works, said the facility would create a mine-to-mill connection within the company and improve control over a key raw material.
The project is expected to create about 200 full-time jobs and up to 2,000 construction jobs at peak. Site preparation is under way, with main construction scheduled to begin in late 2026. Acquired in 2021, the Big River campus houses four EAFs with steelmaking capacity exceeding six million short tons/year.
Source:Kallanish
