J.D. Vance announces $1B steel investment in Ohio hometown

Steel company Cleveland-Cliffs plans to invest $1 billion in its mill located in Vice President J.D. Vance’s southwestern Ohio hometown. Vance announced the investment while addressing workers during a Friday visit and emphasizing the Trump administration’s America First initiative. Vance shared that his grandfather worked as a welder at that very mill for 40 years, and touted his own career as an example of the fulfillment of the American dream. That blue-collar welder’s grandson came back to the Middletown Works plant as the vice president of the United States, Vance said.

Politicians and private sector cronies shipped jobs overseas for decades and sold out their country for a cheaper bottom line, Vance said. They got richer while the everyday workers lost their jobs and got poorer, all while the opioid epidemic ripped through the nation, he added. Vance emphasized what he said was a change under President Donald Trump, noting that net job growth over the last 18 months went to native-born Americans, reversing a four-year trend. The modern Democratic Party isn’t JFK or even Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party, and much more work needed to be done to reverse the Biden administration’s damage, according to the vice president. Vance reported the cost of rent falling for the first time in five years and homicide rates reaching a 126-year low.

What is known about the investment? Cleveland-Cliffs’ investment will create swaths of new jobs and protect existing ones, Vance said. Furnaces would be upgraded and cutting-edge technology would be implemented to improve air quality, he added. Democrats will see that strong American industry can exist alongside clear air and water, Vance said.

Cleveland-Cliffs gave more details on the expected upgrades in a Friday press release, identifying the Middletown Works as the company’s flagship facility. Blast furnaces would be upgraded, along with infrastructure for handling advanced materials and process control tech with artificial intelligence support, according to the statement. The company also planned to build an advanced cogeneration facility that will capture and utilize gas from the blast furnace to generate more on-site power. The cogeneration facility will improve energy efficiency and lower operating costs, according to Cleveland-Cliffs.

The company’s release also noted that the Department of Energy planned to fund half of the $1 billion investment with a $500 million grant to Cleveland-Cliffs.