Posted on 06/09/2026 3:36:06 PM PDT by dennisw
Once on the brink of closure, a historic Pennsylvania steel mill is set for a multi-billion-dollar overhaul that could help revive America's struggling steel industry.
Pittsburgh was the beating heart of the industry, but that changed in the final decades of the 20th century as accelerating globalization and a rapidly changing steel business tanked the city's economy and drove away almost 200,000 residents.
In the years that followed, Pittsburgh transformed itself from rust-belt basket case to regional tech hub, attracting offices for giants like Google and Apple, even as the steel industry continued fading.
US Steel was one of the last holdovers from the city's glory days, but the company had long been warning that its oldest plant - the Mon Valley Works, located just outside town in West Mifflin - could not survive without major reinvestment.
Then along came Japan's Nippon Steel, which acquired US Steel for nearly $15 billion in 2025, after a year-and-a-half-long saga that drew in both the Biden and Trump administrations.
Nippon Steel now plans to invest up to $2.5 billion into modernizing the Mon Valley Works, renovating the 88-year-old hot-strip mill, which has constrained both output and quality for decades.
US Steel chief executive David Burritt said the investment would also help restore confidence in the region's industrial base.
'The Mon Valley project will go a long way to make people feel like there's a future here,' Burritt told the WSJ.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
Pittsburgh Steelers!!!!!!
That’s a pretty good fit. Japan does not want to have to rely on Red Chinese steel, either.
This will be a surge for the industry in the USA.
American industry didn’t go anywhere to die. Our government sold it to the highest foreign bidder.
I have been saying for 10-15 years that Wall Street and K Street (DC lobbyists) have been selling out Main Street to Chine for the last 30+ years.
It didn't work like that. The companies sold out their workforce to have the goods made elsewhere.
Nippon actually committed making a big investment in the US based facilities. The other (US) suitors didn’t.
Our government sold it to the highest foreign bidder.
It didn’t work like that. The companies sold out their workforce to have the goods made elsewhere.
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Yes it did. the us government created he legal environment that enable the corporations to move. the first things the feds did under clinton was allow china into the world trade organization
an earlier poster had it right. it was a combination of Wall Street (corporations)and K Street (DC lobbyists) (government)
WHO wants to work in a steel mill? No one. It is nasty, hot, dirty work and no soft younger man is going to work for $25 an hour running a roller plate mill when he can get a clean air conditioned grocery store job for nearly the same amount. If anything comes of these old roller mills it will be automated and require few employees.
Get illegal aliens to work there. Make the steel mill an ICE free zone.
I toured a steel rolling mill in Oregon. Nasty place to work. I love heavy industry but I wouldn’t want to work there unless absolutely desperate.
I guess that’s the solution. People aren’t hungry or desperate for work anymore. end the welfare system and people will work there.
I worked at J&L Homestead mill my junior and senior years at Pitt. Enabled me to graduate with a $512 Student loan which I quickly paid off afterward. Saved my parents a fortune!
Oh, and I also bought a brand new '65 Mustang, Caspian Blue convertible with white interior, 289 engine, 4 barrel carb, four-on-the floor, loaded with goodies. My girl friend wrecked the car.
My (union) job was in the Ingot Mold Foundry. I could do 1/3 of the job, haul a big pile of coke, then study for a while, then tend the fires, then study, then clean up the clinkers, then study, they go home..
Sad to say, the blast furnaces are all gone now, replaced by sales offices for insurance companies and such. But I still cherish memories of those days.
She is no longer my girlfriend.
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