U.S. Steel broke ground Friday, Oct. 30, on a planned $1.9 billion direct reduced iron (DRI) plant at its Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Ark. The U.S. Steel Osceola project is designed to link the company’s iron ore operations in Minnesota to the electric arc furnaces it runs in Mississippi County, a setup the company calls a “mine to mill connection,” according to its release.
U.S. Steel says the investment will create approximately 200 full-time jobs and an estimated 2,000 construction jobs at peak. Preliminary site preparation is underway, and the company expects construction to begin in the latter part of 2026.
The plant will sit next to Big River 2, the newest mill on the campus, so the iron can be “fed hot directly into its EAFs,” the company said. U.S. Steel says the steel made with it will serve the automotive, appliance and solar industries.
“From a rock in the ground to a coil from our mill, this facility creates a true mine to mill connection within U. S. Steel.”
Daniel Brown, Executive Vice President – Advanced Technology Steelmaking and Chief Operating Officer, Big River Steel Works, in U.S. Steel’s Oct. 30 release
What Direct Reduced Iron Is and Why Mini-Mills Need It
Electric arc furnace mills such as Big River melt metal with electricity instead of making iron in a blast furnace. Their main raw material has traditionally been scrap steel. The catch is that the highest grades of steel, such as exposed auto body sheet, need clean iron with few leftover elements, and good scrap is not always available.
Direct reduced iron fills that gap. U.S. Steel describes it as “a high-quality ore-based feedstock for EAFs produced by removing oxygen from iron ore without melting it.” The company says DRI “acts as a high-quality replacement for prime scrap that improves cost competitiveness and supply reliability.” In a first-quarter 2026 investor presentation, U.S. Steel put the problem more bluntly: “EAFs require uniquely high-quality metallics not consistently available in market,” it said.
Building the plant on the mill’s own campus is the design choice U.S. Steel is leaning on. “No other facility in the U.S. is co-located with a mill to enable hot charging,” the company said in April, according to the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. “This increases efficiency and reduces electricity needs.” The Osceola plant can also press its iron into hot briquetted iron, a form that can be shipped for use at Big River Steel Works or other destinations, U.S. Steel said.
U.S. Steel has not publicly given the DRI plant’s annual output in tons or named its technology supplier in the releases reviewed for this article.
From Minnesota Pellets to Arkansas Coil
The iron will start in Minnesota. When U.S. Steel announced the project on April 29, it said the plant will draw on its 2022 investment in direct reduced-grade pellet capability at its Keetac plant, part of its Minnesota Ore Operations, “creating a direct link between our mining operations, EAF feedstock creation, and steel production at Big River Steel Works,” the April release said.
U.S. Steel’s first-quarter presentation calls the Keetac DR pellet plant the largest in the United States and says Keetac can make up to 4 million tons a year of DR-grade pellets. Placing the DRI plant in Osceola “will eliminate the need to ship DRI to the facility,” the company said in April.
For U.S. manufacturers, the point is control of the raw material. The April release said the investment advances vertical integration “under a single, integrated American supply chain.” CEO David Burritt said then that the project “strengthens our ability to create steel that is truly mined, melted, made in America, from start to finish.”
At the Oct. 30 groundbreaking, Burritt said, “From mining iron ore in Minnesota to producing advanced steel in Arkansas, our people are turning vision into reality.”
Key Facts: U.S. Steel Osceola DRI Plant
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Investment | $1.9 billion (company plan) | U.S. Steel, Oct. 30, 2026 |
| Location | Big River Steel Works, Osceola, Mississippi County, Ark., next to Big River 2 | U.S. Steel, Oct. 30, 2026 |
| Groundbreaking | Oct. 30, 2026 | U.S. Steel; Arkansas Economic Development Commission |
| Construction start | Expected in the latter part of 2026 | U.S. Steel, Oct. 30, 2026 |
| First production | Early 2029 (company expectation) | KAIT, Oct. 30, 2026 |
| Full-time jobs | About 200 (company plan), plus 35 embedded contractor roles | U.S. Steel, Apr. 29 and Oct. 30, 2026 |
| Construction jobs | Estimated 2,000 at peak | U.S. Steel, Oct. 30, 2026 |
| Iron source | DR-grade pellets from Keetac, Minnesota | U.S. Steel, Apr. 29, 2026 |
| Annual DRI output | Not disclosed | U.S. Steel releases |
Big River Steel’s Growth Since 2021
U.S. Steel acquired Big River Steel in 2021. Its $3 billion Big River 2 expansion was completed and began producing steel in 2024, the company said. Together, the campus houses four electric arc furnaces and produces more than six million tons of steel a year, according to U.S. Steel.
Big River employs 1,800 people now, Jim Bell, vice president of operations and construction engineering, told KAIT, adding that “to add another 200 in this rural part of Arkansas always means a lot to these counties.”
The state is counting on that momentum. “It has taken a concerted team effort to build Mississippi County, Arkansas into the nation’s top steel producing county, and U. S. Steel’s new DRI facility shows that there is still momentum for growth,” Clint O’Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said in the state’s release.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “America’s next great building boom needs steel, and we want Arkansas workers making it.” She added that the project “means more opportunities to earn a good living and build a life right here in Mississippi County.”
U.S. Steel also cited an FY2024 economic impact analysis that found the company supported more than 4,700 jobs in Arkansas and contributed $45 million in state and local tax revenue.
Owned by Nippon Steel
U.S. Steel has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Steel since June 2025. In an April 30 statement, Nippon Steel said U.S. Steel’s board approved the DRI plant on April 28 and that the approximately $1.9 billion investment “will be one specific investment in Nippon Steel’s $11 billion commitment.” Burritt said in April that the partnership with Nippon Steel “helped accelerate this investment years sooner than would have otherwise been possible.”
What to Watch Next for the U.S. Steel Osceola Plant
- Construction start. U.S. Steel has said only that construction is expected to begin in the latter part of 2026, with site preparation already underway.
- Schedule. Brown projects the buildout to take 32 months, including a year of engineering and equipment delivery followed by two years of on-site construction, KAIT reported, with a first production run expected in early 2029. In May, company officials told AIST they were allotting about 30 months for construction and expected the plant online in the first half of 2029.
- Hiring. The roughly 200 full-time jobs are a company plan. Hiring dates have not been announced.
- Output. Watch for U.S. Steel to disclose the plant’s rated annual tonnage and how much will be hot-charged versus briquetted.
For another big U.S. Steel project approved this year, see Manufacturers Lists’ coverage of the Mon Valley hot strip mill in Pennsylvania. For other American producers, see the Manufacturers Lists steel manufacturers list.
Comments