David Stickler's Hybar Plans New, $500M Arkansas Rebar Mill

The new mill will be one of two planned rebar mills for Hybar, which aims to focus on sustainable scrap metal recycling and steel production.

The company has already secured commitments for the purchase of 20% of its Osceola output under long-term agreements.

Groundbreaking is planned for the second quarter of 2023 once final permits are obtained and delivery of equipment begins. Construction is expected to take 22 months and an adjacent solar installation is also in the works.

Technology for the new mill will be provided by the SMS group.

Recall that Osceola is already home to U.S. Steel’s planned Big River flat-rolled steel megamill. About 30 miles north of Osceola in Blytheville is sheet producer Nucor Steel Arkansas and beam producer Nucor-Yamato Steel Co. And about 60 miles south of Osceola is Nucor Steel Memphis — although in Tennessee, it’s just across the Mississippi River.

The location in the middle of the US is a prime spot to take advantage of truck, rail, and barge transportation. The mill will have an expanded Mississippi River port facility and a direct Class 1 railroad connection.

Stickler, Hybar’s CEO, is also a senior managing partner of Global Principal Partners — a metals and mining investment and project development firm that was responsible for the original start-up of Big River Steel. The EAF mill broke ground 2014, started up in 2017, and was sold to US Steel in 2021. He was also a part of the team that formed Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) in the early ’90s.

“My team and I have had great success investing billions of dollars in northeast Arkansas over the past eight years. I am pleased that after conducting a multi-state site search that we are able to make this announcement today,” Stickler said. “Arkansas is a great place to conduct business, especially steel business.”

“Arkansas continues the momentum to become a national leader in the steel industry,” said Arkansas Secretary of Commerce Mike Preston. “Companies like Hybar are looking for locations where they can find a qualified workforce and low business costs while being able to get products to customers quickly and efficiently. Arkansas checks all of the boxes, and companies are taking note. I am confident we will continue to see many such investments in the future.”