U.S. Steel Corp., which owns Big River Steel and which is building Big River 2 in Osceola, is considering buyout offers.
This obviously has ramifications for Arkansas, whose Mississippi County is now the top steel-producing county in the nation and where the $3 billion Big River 2 is the largest manufacturing project in state history.
This is an Opinion
U.S. Steel, based in Pittsburgh and which acquired Big River Steel in 2021, is a storied emblem of the industrialization of America. “Suitors for U.S. Steel are attracted to the 122-year-old company’s relatively low stock price and its hefty capacity to produce steel that includes some of the largest and newest steel mills in the country,” The Wall Street Journal reported last week. And those new steel mills are here in Arkansas.
New spending on transportation, energy infrastructure and electric vehicles should stoke steel demand, the Journal said.
And Arkansas is poised to benefit mightily from this demand. Big River Steel and now U.S. Steel have brought high-paying jobs to a part of the state that was sorely in need of them. We can only hope that if U.S. Steel accepts an offer, the buyer will have the same commitment to the state.
