The Eyepopping Factory Construction Boom in the US. (wolfstreet.com)

[usonian]

2. One comment I read suggested that new plants may be far more preferable than old ones.

Softail Rider
Dec 2, 2023 at 4:26 pm
Steel mill in Granite City, IL closing down over a thousand jobs won’t help the Metro East economy.

Wolf Richter
Dec 2, 2023 at 8:11 pm
Softail Rider, A lot of old steel mills are very inefficient.
When they cost too much to operate, and cost too much to upgrade, it’s lights out.
So I checked.
This is an ancient steel mill. The company already shut down a blast furnace last year, and now is shutting down the second blast furnace. So it won’t make any more crude steel.
But the thing is the steel rolling and finishing operations at the site will continue, using crude steel from other facilities.
So it’s not a demand issue. It will still roll the steel there for its customers, but just won’t produce crude steel there and instead get the slabs more cheaply from another place. No company can afford to operate old inefficient factories. They have to go and make room for modern efficient factories.