日经：日本制铁将向美国钢铁Mon Valley工厂投资约30亿美元升级90年热轧设备

TOKYO -- Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel will invest about $3 billion in the Mon Valley works in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, Nikkei has learned, as part of a plan to invest $11 billion in America through 2028.
The Mon Valley works is operated by subsidiary U.S. Steel. The plant is expected to be the largest target of the parent's American investments.
The investment will be focused on a hot-rolling facility, which heats slabs of iron produced in blast furnaces and rolls them into thinner steel. The hot-rolling equipment at Mon Valley has been in operation for nearly 90 years, meaning that it has deteriorated with age and is less efficient.
The new equipment is set to enter operation in the second half of 2029. It will enable the production of higher-quality steel for autos and other applications.
Nippon Steel in August began operating a next-generation hot-rolling facility at its Nagoya works in Japan, following an investment of about 300 billion yen ($1.91 billion). The company plans to introduce its cutting-edge technology at Mon Valley as well.
In a report released by U.S. Steel in June, the company had projected an investment of up to $2.5 billion at Mon Valley. The final amount is thought to have risen to $3 billion amid higher labor and construction costs.
When Nippon Steel acquired U.S. Steel in 2025, it promised the U.S. government to invest $11 billion in the company by 2028. As of August, it had already approved $3.7 billion in investments. With the planned $3 billion for Mon Valley, more than half of the pledged amount has now been allocated.
The American market for steel remains strong. Tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump's administration have helped curb imports and boosted demand for domestically produced steel.
U.S. hot-rolled coil prices exceeded $1,300 per metric ton in mid-October, according to SteelBenchmarker. This marked their first time above that level since June 2022, when postpandemic demand drove a surge in steel consumption.
Buoyed by the favorable market environment, such major American steelmakers as Cleveland-Cliffs have seen profits recover sharply. Nippon Steel forecasts consolidated net profit for the year ending March 2027 at 290 billion yen, 17 times the year-earlier level. U.S. Steel is projected to contribute 180 billion yen.
But whether the boom will continue over the medium to long term remains uncertain. "Rather than relying on market conditions, we need to steadily generate synergies and carry out investments," Nippon Steel Chief Financial Officer Takahiko Iwai has said.