ImpactAlpha, Aug 8 – Electric vehicle, battery and chip factories are rising in the US south and midwest. Hybar’s planned mill in Osceola, Ark., could help build them.
Hybar turns scrap metal into rebar, a key construction material, and will be powered by on-site solar. The company says its process is more water and energy efficient than traditional rebar mills.
The funding includes $330 million in climate bonds certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative and issued by the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. The remainder is an equity investment led by TPG Rise Climate and Miami-based Global Principal Partners, an investment and project development firm set up by steel veteran David Stickler, founder of Hybar.
Stickler ran Big River Steel, a LEED-certified plant near Osceola now owned by US Steel. Hybar will offer “competitively priced rebar that is also the greenest rebar in the market,” Stickler said.
Green jobs
Hybar expects the plant to turn out 630,000 tons of rebar a year and employ more than 150 workers. It says its rebar will primarily be used in large infrastructure projects, including those supported by federal infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act incentives.
Shifting to low-carbon steel could increase jobs supported by steelmaking in the nearby Ohio Valley by up to 43% by 2031, a recent study concluded.
