Union Partners to build facility on Big River Steel campus

Union Partners announced Thursday (Feb. 15) plans to build a new steel processing facility on the Big River Steel campus in Osceola. The new facility will be adjacent to BRS’s main building and it will include both slitting and multi-blanking lines in a new build-to-suit facility expandable to 258,000 square feet.

Construction will be on an accelerated schedule with a formal ground breaking in the first quarter of 2018. How much money the new plant will cost and how many people it will employ was not disclosed.

“The Union Partners team is excited about our new opportunity alongside Big River Steel,” Union Partners founders Chris Hutter and Paul Douglass said. “This collaboration will allow Union Partners to supply additional steel needs across the country, while maintaining our strong commitment to innovation. Our leading equipment and testing capabilities will only serve to further enhance the timely delivery of quality steel products into the marketplace.”

Union Partners will install the latest innovations in technology and processes to enable real-time collaboration between their new operations and Big River Steel, the leaders said. The mill-grade equipment was selected to service the needs of Big River and its customers now and into the future, including the specific needs of the automotive industry which both companies are targeting.

“Big River is excited to welcome Union Partners to Arkansas as we continue to attract a full roster of the industry’s best organizations to our campus. We’ve helped bring millions of dollars of investment to Arkansas and hundreds of jobs. And we’re not done yet,” Big River Steel CEO Dave Stickler said.