New vacuum-degasser and casting technology is now running at the JSW Steel USA plant in Mingo Junction, Ohio, following a $145 million investment in equipment that workers say signals the company plans to stick around for the long haul. The upgrades sit on the same stretch of land off modern-day Commercial Avenue where steelmaking on the banks of the Ohio River has continued for well over a century.
According to WTOV, caster manager Kyle Green said the investment shows the company intends to stay in Mingo Junction for the long run, and he put the plant's current workforce at 375 employees. Matthew Caprarese, JSW Steel's vice president of engineering and HSE, told the station the vision from the start was to build a viable U.S. steel company and improve the facility through major investments, with the broader goal of upgrading the plant into a sustainable domestic steel operation.
JSW Steel USA first went public with the scale of its ambitions in May 2023, announcing plans to invest US$145 million in new projects to upgrade its Mingo Junction manufacturing operations, according to a company press release. JobsOhio described the project differently at the time, citing plans to create 26 new jobs and invest at least $119.4 million, while a local report in The Intelligencer noted that company representatives indicated the investment could ultimately reach up to $145 million.
What's New on the Casting Floor
The centerpiece of the project is one of the largest vacuum tank degassers in the world, according to the JSW press release. Primetals Technologies, which collaborated with JSW on the build, described it more specifically as a 230-ton vacuum tank degasser with a dry mechanical vacuum pump system, calling it North America's largest VTD to date. The caster upgrade also included Dynamic Soft Reduction technology along with a complete Level 2 automation system and the Mold Expert mold-monitoring system, per Primetals.
JSW has said the improvement in its domestic slab production capabilities through these new investments will mitigate risks associated with importing slabs. The company's own 2023 announcement projected the work would be completed and commissioned in FY26, while Primetals' account scheduled completion for the second half of 2025 — a discrepancy in timelines that the available record does not resolve.
At Mingo Junction, the new technology is now operational, and workers who spoke with WTOV described a sense of relief at seeing years of planning finally bear out. Senior Vice President Jose Torres said employees are happy the equipment is installed, running, and able to be used.
A Family Trade Along the River
Maintenance manager Todd A. Martin, a third-generation steel mill worker whose son was once a fourth-generation worker at the plant, told WTOV that the $145 million investment in technical equipment enables the operation to compete. The plant traces back to Jefferson Iron Works, which opened in Mingo Junction in 1856, and the site later became part of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, which produced one-fourth of all U.S. steel in 1984, according to the JSW Steel website. JSW acquired the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel plant, located off Route 7, and has focused on upgrading it into a sustainable U.S. steel operation ever since.
Torres also pointed to remarks from former President Donald Trump, who promised a $15 billion commitment for construction of a Mesabi Metallics steel plant in Iowa, describing that pledge as a sign of domestic commitment to steel. He said JSW Steel's CEO, Rob Simon, advocates for a level playing field to compete with imports — a goal the company has tied directly to the Mingo Junction upgrades, which it says aim to make American steel production more efficient and broaden its slab product portfolio to serve the renewable-energy and infrastructure markets, per the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.
Tariffs and a Wave of Ohio Valley Steel Spending
The Mingo Junction push comes as the broader steel industry rides a wave of federal tariff protection. Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and derivative products took effect in February 2025 and were raised to 50% in June of that year, according to Manufacturing Dive. The outlet reported that U.S. steel imports totaled 6.97 million net tons from January through April, down from 9.89 million net tons over the same period a year earlier, while domestic manufacturers had processed 38.93 million net tons of raw steel since January, up 6.8% year over year.
Mingo Junction is far from the only Ohio Valley mill seeing fresh capital. U.S. Steel has announced a capital investment of up to $2.5 billion in its Mon Valley Works, including a new hot strip mill at the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania, with production targeted for late 2029, according to CBS Pittsburgh. Cleveland-Cliffs and the U.S. Department of Energy will each contribute $500 million toward a $1 billion upgrade of the Middletown Works plant, a project expected to preserve 2,300 jobs, per Axios.
JSW itself has described Mingo Junction as part of a larger US$500 million plan to expand and modernize its American operations, which also includes a separate $110 million modernization of its plate and pipe mill in Baytown, Texas, with commissioning scheduled for October 1, 2026, according to SteelOrbis. That same account notes JSW acquired and revived the shuttered Mingo Junction mill in 2019 after it had sat idle.
For now, the company says it welcomes people interested in working at the Mingo Junction plant as the new equipment settles into regular production. For workers like Martin and Green, whose families have logged generations on the mill floor, the newly running machinery is as much a statement of intent as it is a piece of hardware.
