Ohio Receives $500M Federal Steel Grant

A major Ohio steel plant is getting a $1 billion modernization, with the federal government covering half the cost.

What happened

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $500 million award supporting Cleveland-Cliffs’ $1 billion investment at Middletown Works. The project is expected to preserve 2,300 jobs, employ more than 1,500 workers at peak construction, and keep the plant producing roughly 3 million tons of raw steel annually.

The upgrades include:

• Rebuilding and modernizing the plant’s blast furnace
• Using AI-enabled controls to improve productivity and energy efficiency
• Capturing blast-furnace gas to generate electricity and steam on site
• Upgrading material-handling infrastructure

Work is expected to begin in the coming weeks, with the blast-furnace rebuild targeted for completion in Q1 2030.

Why it matters

For economic developers, this is retention at mega-project scale. 2,300 existing jobs stay anchored in Ohio. Just as important, a century-old industrial asset gets the investment needed to remain globally competitive for decades.

It also highlights a changing federal investment landscape: domestic production, energy reliability, cost competitiveness and supply-chain security are increasingly driving federal industrial policy.

And the ripple effects extend well beyond Middletown. The plant supplies steel to automotive, HVAC, appliance and distribution customers, all industries with deep footprints across Ohio.

Go deeper - READ MORE INFORMATION HERE: 

• DOE announcement and project details: Department of Energy
• Investment, jobs and project timeline: Cleveland-Cliffs announcement
• Original 2024 project scope: DOE Industrial Demonstrations Program