72 Steel, a New York-based company, has celebrated the start of plant development at a $218 million site on land once occupied by J&L Steel’s tin mill.

The company, founded in 2016 by Chinese American entrepreneurs, hopes to revive local steel production through the plants construction, with the decision to build having been prompted by the 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, that included $110 billion in new funds for roads, bridges and other major projects. The plants location, on 44 acres of the historic Aliquippa Works site along the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, further emphasizes the current trend of US steelmakers investing in green production in the country’s steel city.

The operation will include an electric-arc furnace to melt scrap steel and produce 500kt/yr of rebar for a variety of industries. Its production capacity and output value are expected to reach $400 million.

Once complete, the company expects to hire 300 to 400 permanent employees, on top of the hundreds of construction workers required to build the facility, roadways, parking space, product storage areas and ancillary buildings.

72 Steel plans to use ‘energy-saving and environmental protection technologies’ during production, including air and water pollution control equipment and an electric-arc furnace from Italian technology supplier Tenova.

“Pittsburgh has a celebrated history as the manufacturing powerhouse that built the modern world.”

Matt Smith, chief growth officer at the Allegheny Conference

“Pittsburgh has a celebrated history as the manufacturing powerhouse that built the modern world,” said Matt Smith, chief growth officer at the Allegheny Conference. “Today, we are positioned as the region where the next-generation of manufacturing is happening now – spanning advanced, additive, green manufacturing and more.”

“We want to bring more work to the area, and assist communities where they can raise a family.”

Dan Camp, Beaver County Commissioners' chairman

“We want to bring more work to the area, and assist communities where they can raise a family,” Beaver County Commissioners' chairman Dan Camp commented. “To make Beaver County what it was when the steel mills were running 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a strong focus on economic growth and creation of good-paying jobs. My relatives and many other Beaver Countians worked tirelessly on this very ground to help create the rich history that Beaver County has today.”

Source: The Times