Steel plant scrapped, Perry County left in limbo

Justin Glowacki, Sonya Woods and Pragesh Adhikari • March 24, 2025

NEW AUGUSTA — Plans for an anticipated steel plant in Perry County have silently ended, leaving local residents unaware of what comes next.

Janet Gallaspy, a 25-year-resident of New Augusta, described the initial excitement when the project was announced.

Janet Gallaspy, a longtime New Augusta resident, who was very excited about the project, shares her disappointment over the unmet expectations of the project. (RHCJC News)

“I was excited when I heard about the Hy Stor project because I thought, oh, that’ll be great because it’d be jobs. We need jobs,” she said.

Upon hearing the project would no longer happen, she said it was disheartening.

“If that’s not coming, that’s another big disappointment because that would have really been some nice jobs for Perry County and probably would have brought a lot of people into Perry County as well, so that’s a big disappointment for all of us,” Gallaspy said.

According to Gallaspy, many residents have to commute to neighboring cities for good-paying jobs.

“We need jobs because people have to go to Hattiesburg, Petal, or the coast or anywhere else to get a good job, and there’s not a whole lot of good jobs down here,” she said.

Roy Howard Community Journalism Center · Steel plant scrapped, Perry County left in limbo

Over the past 50 years, Perry County’s population has increased slightly — from around 9,000 to just over 11,000 today. People in Perry County said the proposed steel plant represented an opportunity for significant economic improvement.

Rena Hyatt, owner of Country Cafe in New Augusta and a longtime Perry County resident, said the plant would have brought her restaurant business.

Rena Hyatt, a restaurant owner in New Augusta, Mississippi, talks about how the potential construction of the Green Steel plant could have positively impacted local businesses, including hers, by bringing in more people into the county. (RHCJC News)

“It would have brought extra jobs to people, extra business to the few little businesses that are here,” she said. “We only have … four eatin’ places right here in New Augusta, so (I’m) sure it would have encouraged somebody else to build or kept us four full.”

A failed project

SSAB, a Swedish steel company, announced in January it would no longer continue negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy to build the proposed facility. Reports in the Magnolia Tribune stated SSAB expected the plant to create around 6,000 temporary construction jobs and 540 permanent positions, including roles in engineering, construction, manufacturing and raw material supply chains.

The Energy Department had previously announced up to $500 million in funding for this project, which planned to produce iron in Perry County and ship it to Iowa for steel production. The plant would have been the one of the first fossil-fuel-free steel facilities in the U.S., relying on green hydrogen provided by Hy Stor Energy.

Hy Stor Energy, once a key partner in the project, is now unreachable — their website is offline, emails sent to their staff bounce back and their former public relations firm confirmed they no longer represent them. Several key employees, including the founder, have moved to new ventures, and the company canceled a significant equipment order late last year.

In an attempt to learn more about what happened with the project, Roy Howard Community Journalism Center staff members contacted the Perry County Board of Supervisors. However, supervisors said they are restricted by a nondisclosure agreement, preventing them from publicly discussing specific details. This has left many community members uncertain about the project’s status and what will happen next.

Attempts to contact the Energy Department were also unsuccessful.

A sign detailing the proposed clean hydrogen hub in Perry County, Mississippi, which will no longer move forward. (RHCJC News)

Federal connections

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021, allocated $62 billion to the Energy Department, including $9.5 billion specifically for clean hydrogen initiatives. This funding was designed to support emerging technologies that reduce emissions and expand renewable energy use.

According to the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, the widespread use of clean hydrogen could reduce U.S. emissions by an estimated 10% by 2025 — compared to 2005 levels — aligning with long-term climate goals.

Additionally, the department’s projects that the hydrogen economy could create 100,000 new direct and indirect jobs by 2030 as new capital projects and clean hydrogen infrastructure expand.

Because of Mississippi’s distinct geography and availability of resources, Perry County was considered an ideal location for green steel production due to access to renewable energy and water sources essential for clean hydrogen production.

RHCJC staff members reached out to local officials and the Energy Department to discover if any other companies are considering taking over the project; as of press time, no responses have been received.