United States Steel Corp. and SunCoke Energy broke ground on a $570 million joint capital investment program to construct a new state-of-the-art 650,000-ton/year coke facility adjacent to U.S. Steel’s Granite City (Illinois) Works. The new facility will use SunCoke Energy’s proven low-emission heat-recovery technology to process coal into coke. Energy generated in the coke-making process will be used in a cogeneration plant owned and operated by U.S. Steel. The cogeneration facility will provide electricity to Granite City Works.

Construction of these facilities will generate approximately 900 temporary construction jobs and is expected to take 18 months. When finished, the plants are expected to create 88 full-time jobs. The coke plant will be constructed, owned and operated by Gateway Energy and Coke Co., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary and affiliate of SunCoke Energy. U.S. Steel will provide $280 million to support the program.