![Hybar Steel was just one of Lexicon’s many projects in Mississippi County. [Karen E. Segrave]](https://dqndh7utxx63f.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Image_8-1-25_at_5.12e280afPM_opt-e1754672951830-920x615.jpg)
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The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette made Page 1 news earlier this month out of a potential development Arkansas Business’ Chloe McGehee Whispered about back in March: that Hybar Steel in Osceola was considering a second steel rebar mill in Arkansas.
Our Kyle Massey then went on to develop the information in June, with Hybar CEO Dave Stickler saying he has a Hybar 2 plant “on the drawing board.”
What does appear to be new is the fact that the facility has gained state approval for an air permit. “According to the permit, Hybar 2 will be located just west of the current steel rebar mill and identical to the company’s original mill,” the D-G reported.
The development comes 10 years after the 2015 death of John Correnti, the CEO of Big River Steel in Osceola, the billion-dollar-plus project that at the time of its groundbreaking in September 2014 was the biggest economic development project in the state. “Welcome to steel mill heaven,” Correnti said at the groundbreaking in words that at the time might have been considered hyperbole but that have come to be prescient.
A second Hybar plant would further secure Mississippi County’s place as the capital of U.S. steel production.
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