A New York City-based manufacturer officially launched its plans Tuesday to construct a $218 million steel factory along the Ohio River in the city of Aliquippa. 72 Steel estimates it will employ 300 workers at the facility to make rebar and other construction goods, according to a senior business advisor to the company, Xiaoyan Zhang.
The factory, located on the site of the former J&L Steel Aliquippa Works tin mill, would become 72 Steel’s first manufacturing plant. Since forming in 2016, the company has specialized in steel trading.
“They've been looking [at] different places — West Virginia, Ohio, maybe even North Carolina. ... But they [fell] in love with Pittsburgh,” Zhang said of 72 Steel. “They feel, of course, this [was] the capital of steel for the U.S. in the past. Plus ... look at the transportation [on] the rivers and the railroads and the power supply: Everything's here, and the land has been prepared.”
In a statement Tuesday, 72 Steel said its facility will use state-of-the-art and low-carbon technologies to make up to 500,000 tons of high-end steel annually. Huabin Lin, the company board chair, said his firm chose to pursue the project in response to President Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law, anticipating an increased need for construction supplies. Incidentally, on Tuesday, the White House named Pittsburgh as one of five "workforce hubs," where it will partner with employers, educators, labor unions and other stakeholders to prepare a "diverse and skilled workforce [that] can meet the demand for labor driven by [federal] investments." Phoenix, Columbus, Baltimore and Augusta were also designated as hubs.
In Aliquippa, Zhang said 72 Steel aims to open its plant by the end of 2025. He said it is still awaiting the necessary permits.
Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker predicted that the investment will renew hope in his community. He noted that his father worked at the J&L mill that once occupied the site until it shut down in the mid-1980s, part of a rash of factory closures that ravaged industrial hubs throughout the region.
“It was like steel was never going to come back. But 72 Steel, you made us believe,” Walker said during Tuesday's ceremony. “You have breathed back into a life and a workforce that has been dying for something like this for a very long time.”
72 Steel is owned by Chinese-American entrepreneurs who immigrated to the U.S. decades ago and who, Zhang said, share Walker’s yearning for a brighter future.
“We want to make our American Dream here, to build it, and we believe in this country,” Zhang said. He moved to the U.S. from China 40 years ago to complete his doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He still resides locally.
Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony at the 44-acre parcel centered the Chinese heritage of 72 Steel's leaders. Attendees drove between rows of tall inflatable red and gold pillars to reach the construction site, and an emcee wearing a sparkling evening gown translated the remarks of executives who spoke in Mandarin.
But despite the optimism amid the pageantry, state and local officials urged 72 Steel to build the plant as quickly as possible.
“Over the years … there were some close calls on this property. Suitors have come and gone,” Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Robert Matzie said of past potential buyers. “We are hopeful that this transaction will occur and we will see that construction.
“I live across the river. … And I'll be able to see this new construction when it is complete, hopefully sooner rather than later, and know the hard work of many people to bring back manufacturing to southwestern Pennsylvania occurred.”
The current property owner, local entrepreneur Chuck Betters, reiterated his faith in 72 Steel, saying he had “really good feelings” about the company’s owners when he first met them. As an additional show of confidence, Betters announced Tuesday that his family will invest $1.5 million in the project once the sale closes.
A spokesperson for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development said Pennsylvania officials have not committed any state funding to the project. Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development did not say by Tuesday afternoon whether the state could eventually invest.
Stephanie Sun, who served as executive director of former Gov. Tom Wolf’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, hailed 72 Steel’s plans. She noted that Pennsylvania’s Asian-American population grew rapidly over the last decade. The Pew Research Center estimates that it more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, although it now accounts for just about 4% of the state’s population.
But, Sun noted, the “Asian Pacific American community is also the fastest growing population with an international network of investment, of business opportunities, even of wealth.”
Despite the opportunity to bring more of those dollars to the U.S., tensions between China and the U.S. have only grown during Biden’s presidency. Daniel Camp, chair of the Beaver County Board of Commissioners, acknowledged that “everyone’s asking” whether the Chinese government has any influence over 72 Steel.
He said he has no knowledge to that effect. And he added, “We have to see the project come to fruition. Once it's built, then we can start having those serious conversations.”
