Hyundai invests $5.8 billion in construction of a steel plant in the United States

The South Korean Hyundai Motor Group has announced investments in the United States of $21 billion for 2025-2028. This is stated in the company’s press release.

The investments include a steel plant with an electric arc furnace in Louisiana, which will be built by the steel division of Hyundai Steel. Its annual capacity will be 2.7 million tons of steel.

“The facility will produce low-carbon steel plates using significant scrap stocks in the US to increase the group’s responsiveness and flexibility in response to external uncertainty,” the company said in a statement.

The $5.8 billion plant will create more than 1.4 thousand jobs and produce next-generation steel to be used in the automotive sector, the parties said during a meeting at the White House.

Hyundai also plans to invest $9 billion to increase its production capacity in the United States to 1.2 million vehicles per year for the Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Genesis brands. The group has two large automotive plants in the country (in Alabama and Georgia) and announced this week the opening of a third, also located in Georgia.

In total, the announced investments are expected to create 14,000 direct full-time jobs in the United States by 2028.

In March of this year, Hyundai Steel, a subsidiary of automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia, announced an emergency management regime. It was about tightening austerity measures amid US tariffs on steel and aluminum and declining profitability due to growing competition in the domestic market from Chinese and Japanese manufacturers. In particular, the company has cut executive salaries by 20% and is considering a voluntary resignation program for employees to save money.