United States Steel Corp. broke ground in Osceola, Ark., on the company’s next-generation highly sustainable and technologically advanced steel mill. According to U.S. Steel, the $3 billion steelmaking facility will be the most advanced in North America and largest private project in the history of Arkansas. The plant will be adjacent to U. S. Steel’s Big River Steel, and the two facilities will be known as Big River Steel Works. The facility is expected to bring 900 plant jobs to the area, along with thousands of construction jobs. It will include two electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) with 3 million tons per year of advanced steelmaking capability, an endless casting and rolling line and advanced finishing capabilities.

TMS International, a provider of outsourced industrial services to steel mills, acquired the business and assets of Stein LLC and Stein Steel Mill Services of Cleveland, Ohio. Stein provides services to steel producers throughout the U.S. Its full-service operations provide metal producers with the flexibility and resources to handle a wide range of steel-mill processing services, such as slag removal and metallics reclamation, scrap handling, scrap management, recycling, raw-material screening, material handling, and maintenance and repair services.

Commercial Metals Company (CMC) completed the acquisition of 33 rebar fabrication facilities and four steel mills in the U.S. (located in Knoxville, Tenn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Sayreville, N.J.; and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) from Gerdau S.A. for $600 million. The mills have a combined annual mill rolling capacity of 2.5 million tons. CMC now has approximately 7.2 million tons of global melt capacity.

Praxair Inc. signed a long-term contract to supply industrial gases to a new steel mill being built in the northeast region of Brazil.