In a Monday afternoon White House press conference, Gov. Jeff Landry and President Donald Trump announced that South Korean automaker Hyundai plans to build a $5.8 billion steel plant in Ascension Parish.
Though media reports on the deal surfaced in January, it had not been publicly confirmed by officials until now. The announcement comes as Hyundai moves to boost production on American soil in an effort to avoid Trump’s tariffs.
The plant, which is expected to create 1,400 new jobs, will be built on a 1,700-acre site in the RiverPlex MegaPark near Donaldsonville. Construction is set to begin in the third quarter of 2026.
The facility will produce 2.7 million metric tons of “low-carbon” steel per year. The steel will be used by Hyundai’s U.S. assembly plants to manufacture electric vehicles as well as by other automakers. Hyundai currently has assembly plants in Alabama and Georgia, and a second Georgia plant is in the works.
“This investment is a clear demonstration that tariffs strongly work. … There are no tariffs if you make your cars in America,” Trump said.
The new steel plant is part of a larger, $21 billion investment that Hyundai plans to make in the U.S. over the next four years, according to company chairman Euisun Chung. Hyundai is the world’s third-largest automaker.
The deal likely took shape when Landry and a handful of state officials traveled to South Korea on an economic development mission in October.
