$5.8b steelworks part of $26b US investment pledge made by Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun
DONALDSONVILLE, Louisiana — Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun stood beside US President Donald Trump at the White House 17 months ago to unveil one of the Korean auto giant’s biggest bets on American manufacturing.
At the heart of the $21 billion US investment package unveiled in March 2025 — later increased to $26 billion — was a $5.8 billion steel mill in Louisiana, the group's first steel production base in the US and a move to make one of the most essential materials for vehicles directly on US soil.
On Friday, that pledge looked very different from the polished Roosevelt Room in Washington. Rain had swept across southern Louisiana earlier in the day, but by afternoon clouds had cleared and the sun beat down on sugarcane fields stretching along the roads into Donaldsonville, a small city in in Ascension Parish with a long history of sugarcane farming.
Much of the 7.37 square-kilometer site, once sugarcane farmland, had been graded for the major work ahead. A handful of excavators, bulldozers and dump trucks dotted the vast property alongside temporary buildings serving as site offices.
There is no steel mill here yet. Full-scale construction is set to begin in the fourth quarter once permitting procedures are cleared.
But by 2029, Hyundai Steel, the steel making unit of Hyundai Motor Group, expects the empty land to be transformed into an integrated steelmaking complex capable of producing 2.7 million tons of steel annually to be used for vehicle bodies.
It was here Friday that Hyundai Steel and Posco, South Korea’s two largest steelmakers and longtime competitors at home, formally marked the launch of Hyundai-Posco Louisiana Steel, or HPLS, their first joint electric arc furnace steelmaking venture in the US.
More than 250 senior government officials from the US and South Korea, as well as business leaders, gathered to celebrate the project’s first tangible milestone since its announcement last March.
“This plant will be both our company’s first integrated steel mill dedicated to automotive steel sheet and the first of its kind in America,” Chung said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “The steel produced here will support Hyundai Motor Group and other automakers as they build the next generation of mobility.”
Made in America
The ceremony carried a wider message that went beyond the steel mill itself. It highlighted deepening industrial ties between South Korea and the US and a renewed push to manufacture more goods and materials used in America on American soil.
“As America strengthens its manufacturing leadership, steel will continue to power the next chapter of its industrial resurgence,” said Chung. “We are proud to contribute to that vision and to the future of ‘Made in America.’”
US officials echoed that message, holding up the Louisiana project as a model for the type of investment Washington wants from foreign manufacturers: not simply assembling finished products in the US, but building the entire supply chain behind them.
“Reshoring is not just about final assembly,” said William Kimmitt, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. “We want the steel here. We want the parts here. We want the suppliers here. We want the technology, the investment and the jobs here. We want the entire industrial ecosystem here in the US.”
For Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, the project was also about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the region.
“Under President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, we are reshoring that manufacturing here in America,” said Larry. “That means great-paying jobs right here in America, but more importantly in Louisiana.”
The project is expected to have a significant economic impact on the region. Once the mill is up and running, the project is expected to create 1,300 direct jobs and 4,100 indirect jobs, according to the company.
Deepening US-Korea industrial ties
South Korean officials, meanwhile, framed HPLS as an example of how the two countries can combine their respective industrial strengths.
“America has energy, a skilled workforce and a great market. Korea has manufacturing strength and decades of industrial experience,” Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said. “Together, we can build more. Together, we can create more jobs and together, we can compete better.”
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Kim called the project a "win-win" for all sides.
“Hyundai and Posco gain a new opportunity, while the US gets the steel mill it wants,” Kim said.
He added that projects like HPLS could move the two countries beyond conventional cooperation toward a broader partnership, opening opportunities not only in the US but in global markets.
Rivals unite in America
The project has also brought together two longtime rivals in South Korea's steel industry.
Hyundai Steel and Posco have spent decades competing for automotive steel customers at home. In Louisiana, they will be shareholders in the same mill.
Hyundai Steel and Posco have spent decades competing for automotive steel customers in South Korea. In Louisiana, they will become shareholders in the same mill.
Hyundai Steel holds a 50 percent stake in HPLS, Posco 20 percent, while Hyundai Motor and Kia each hold 15 percent.
“Posco and Hyundai Steel may be competitors domestically, but globally, we are both Korean companies," Posco Group Chair Chang In-hwa told reporters after the ceremony. "By working together overseas, we can strengthen the presence and competitiveness of Korean companies in the global market.”
Chang said by leveraging Posco’s extensive customer in the US, the steel produced at HPLS to pursue businesses not only with Hyundai Motor Group but also to other carmakers, including General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
sahn@heraldcorp.com
