Big River Steel Works (BR1 + BR2)
Large load · 2027 E. STATE HWY. 198, Osceola, AR
Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas, is U.S. Steel's electric arc furnace flat-rolled campus: the original Big River Steel mill (BR1) and the adjacent Big River 2 (BR2) expansion. With BR2 complete, U.S. Steel says capacity has nearly doubled from three to six million tons a year. The campus is served by Entergy Arkansas, which signed a special rate contract for the original mill in 2015 and said it planned to supply an incremental 550 MW for BR2.
Overview
- Planned demand
- 550 MW
- operating
Entergy Arkansas calls Big River Steel one of its largest industrial customers. In 2015 the utility agreed a special rate contract with the mill and built $73 million of substation and transmission lines to serve it. At BR2's February 2022 groundbreaking, Entergy said it planned to provide an incremental 550 MW to power the new mill on top of its existing supply to Big River Steel. The 550 MW is the utility's stated plan for the expansion. It is not a metered peak, and the original mill's contracted demand has not been published.
Profile
- Original mill: the Flex Mill
- Big River Steel announced in March 2017 that its $1.3 billion mill outside Osceola was complete. It describes itself as a "Flex Mill" that combines integrated-mill grade capability with a scrap-based mini mill. U.S. Steel, which later took full ownership, opened a $450 million electrical steel line on the site in 2023.
- Big River 2
- BR2 was designed with two electric arc furnaces and 3 million tons a year of steelmaking capacity, along with North America's only endless strip production (ESP) casting and rolling line. U.S. Steel said in December 2025 that the expansion was complete, and by March 2026 it described BR2 as complete and online. Entergy's 250 MW Driver Solar farm, approved in 2022, sits next to the campus and was presented as helping U.S. Steel meet its sustainability goals.
- Next: a direct reduced iron plant
- In November 2025 U.S. Steel announced a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant on the Big River Steel Works campus. It will make feedstock for the electric arc furnaces from Minnesota ore pellets. Cost, staffing and power requirements have not been announced.
Facility
- Activity
- Electric arc furnace flat-rolled steel: hot-rolled, cold-rolled, coated and electrical steel coil (about 6 million tons a year across BR1 and BR2)
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Permits and agreements
- Agreement
- 2015 special rate contract with Entergy Arkansas, with $73 million of substation and transmission built to serve the mill
Related records
Timeline
- Mar 1, 2017
- Big River Steel announces its $1.3 billion mill is complete
Big River Steel begins full-time production - Talk Business & Politics
- Feb 10, 2022
- BR2 groundbreaking; Entergy plans incremental 550 MW
Entergy joins U. S. Steel in celebrating construction of their newest mill - Entergy
- Oct 4, 2022
- Arkansas PSC approves Entergy's 250 MW Driver Solar next to the campus
Entergy Arkansas receives approval for 250-megawatt solar farm near Osceola - Talk Business & Politics
- Nov 12, 2025
- U.S. Steel announces a DRI plant on the campus
New steel mill slated for Big River Steel Works campus - Talk Business & Politics
- Dec 15, 2025
- U.S. Steel marks completion of BR2
The Next Generation of American Steelmaking is BIG and Well Underway - www.ussteel.com