Hyundai Steel to build EAF mill in Louisiana

Market: Metals
24/03/25

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Group said today it plans to build an electric arc furnace (EAF) flat steel mill near New Orleans, Louisiana, to support its US auto manufacturing plants.

The 2.7mn metric tonnes (t)/yr (3mn short tons/yr) mill in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, will primarily supply Hyundai's automotive plants, which are located in Alabama and Georgia, along with plants run by Hyundai-subsidiary Kia and other US automakers, according to the Louisiana Economic Development organization. Construction is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026.

Hyundai detailed the $5.8bn investment on Monday at a news conference with US president Donald Trump.

Trump said the mill would allow Hyundai to avoid US steel tariffs. The president has enacted 25pc steel tariffs on imports from all countries, including from South Korea where Hyundai has all of its 24mn metric tonnes (t) of steel output capacity. That production is split evenly between blast furnace and EAF steelmaking processes.

Between Hyundai and Kia, the companies have a combined annual production rate of 1.05mn vehicles/yr in the US.

Hyundai Steel, a unit of Hyundai Motor, plans to import an estimated 3.6mn t/yr of iron ore to the mill, and will build a deep-water dock on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Ascension Parish to accommodate steel and materials shipments, according to LED.

It was not clear whether the iron ore will be reduced in a direct reduced iron (DRI) or hot-briquetted iron (HBI) process to use in the EAF steelmaking.

If built, the mill would be the first flat steel mill in Louisiana. The location in Donaldsville is about 48 miles west of New Orleans.

Steelmakers operate eight EAF and re-rolling flat-rolled steel mills in the southern US with a combined 23.8mn t/yr of production capacity.

By Rye Druzchetta

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