Donald Trump welcomes JSW Steel's proposed $1 billion investment in Texas and Ohio mills

Mumbai: Donald Trump has welcomed the JSW Steel’s proposed $1 billion investment in its Texas and Ohio steel mills, the company said quoting a tweet by the American president. “Steel is coming back fast. US steel adding great capacity also. So are others,” JSW Steel said in a statement on Sunday quoting Trump as saying in a tweet. The company also said US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross too welcomed the investment. “Congratulations to JSW Steel on your investments made in Ohio,” it said quoting a tweet by Ross. JSW Steel had earlier announced a $1 billion investment to modernise its two manufacturing facilities in Texas and Ohio. [caption id=“attachment_4520451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of US president Donald Trump. AP[/caption] Last week, the company had said would invest $500 million to modernise its Ohio facility which it recently acquired as part of the Acero transaction. Earlier this year, the company had announced $500 million capex to modernise its Texas facility. Welcoming the statement from Trump, JSW Steel USA director Parth Jindal said, “We are pleased to share our intention for additional investments in the US. It’s our intention to further augment our capacity in Acero Junction over the next few years and to take the combined capacity of JSW USA to 4 mt per annum–3 mt at Acero and 1 mt at Baytown in Texas.” The Ohio investment will be used to upgrade and enhance Acero’s integrated manufacturing unit. In the first phase entailing $250 million capex, JSW will revamp and restart the electric arc furnace and the slab caster, and modernise the hot strip mill. Subsequent phases will also entail an investment of $250 million that will see adding another electric arc furnace as well as other manufacturing facilities at the hot strip mill to make the facility a fully integrated unit with 3 mt capacity, JSW Steel said. It’s also investing $500 million to expand and modernise its operations at the Baytown facility, which already is one of the widest steel plate and pipe mills in the US.