A steel slab glows red hot while sitting on a rack during production at the NLMK Indiana facility in Portage, Indiana, on April 13, 2018. MUST CREDIT: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Let us read it for you. Listen now. Your browser does not support the audio element.
Pittsburgh-based steelmaking giant U.S. Steel had an economic impact of $2 billion in Arkansas in 2024, up from about $380 million in 2023, according to a report the company released Tuesday.
The company employs 1,712 people in Arkansas, primarily at it’s Big River Steel facility, with more to come after the company announced plans last week for a new facility at its Big River site in Osceola.
U.S. Steel’s Arkansas economic impact study follows a report released last week touting a $2.5 billion economic impact in Minnesota. The company’s Chief Executive Officer David Burritt is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting in Little Rock.
According to Tuesday’s report, the company supports an additional 3,013 indirect and induced jobs in the Natural State. The company defines indirect and induced jobs as those created in the supply chain and those “created in the broader economy as a result of household spending by employees” of the company and its suppliers, respectively.
U.S. Steel’s Arkansas-based supplier network has grown by 354 vendors since 2022, according to the report. The company generated just over $45 million in state and local taxes in 2024, the report said. Only 20% of that tax generation came directly from taxes the company paid that year. The rest was indirect and induced tax generation.
According to the report, the growth in economic impact is fueled by expanding operations and capital projects, increased sourcing from Arkansas-based suppliers and a rising demand for steel.
Bolstering the domestic steel economy has been part of President Donald Trump’s agenda during his second term. There are currently a 25% tariffs on U.K.-originating steel products and 50% on all other foreign steel products.
Although steel demand has declined from a decade ago — and with domestic steel prices as much as $400 a ton higher than steel from some foreign markets — U.S.-based steelmakers are banking on increasing demand on the horizon to support a large build-out of steelmaking capacity, according to a market analysis by the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. Steel’s announcement last week of plans to build a new metals plant at the Big River site is part of the company’s commitment to invest $11 billion in its domestic operations by 2028. The size of the investment was announced earlier this month in conjunction with it’s new owner Nippon Steel, about five months after the Japanese metals company finalized a “historic partnership” with the American steelmaker that was valued at just under $15 billion.
Amanda Malkowski, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Steel, declined to elaborate on the number of jobs or cost of the project. A similar Nucor plant in Louisiana cost an estimated $750 million when it went online in 2013.
The plan includes investments across the company’s domestic steel manufacturing holdings, which U.S. Steel projects to create or protect more than 100,000 jobs.
The deal came after months of back-and-forth between U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel, the steelworker’s union and the U.S. government over national security and job loss concerns. The deal was finalized in June and included a “golden share” provision that gave the federal government power to appoint a board member and have a say in some company decisions.
Unlike other U.S. Steel mills, Big River produces steel from melting scrap — a process that is less capital intensive. The furnaces powering production produce 70% less emissions than their blast furnace counterparts. U.S. Steel has invested more than $3 billion since 2022 in a mini-mill expansion at Big River.
The steel giant also touted its corporate giving in the report, which it estimates at $1.1 million.
The report was completed by Park Strategy Group, a consulting firm based in Philadelphia.
Lucas Dufalla is a Report for America Corps member. Financial support for this coverage came from the Community Journalism Project.
