Arkansas Inc. Podcast: Dan Brown, Big River Steel SVP and COO

In this episode of the Arkansas Inc. Podcast, Big River Steel SVP and COO Dan Brown discusses the steel industry in northeast Arkansas, U.S. Steel's investment in the Natural State, and infrastructure.

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TRANSCRIPT

Dan Brown:

This is Dan Brown, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Big River Steel, and you're listening to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast.

Clint O'Neal:

Welcome to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. This is Clint O'Neal. I serve as executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

To say that the steel industry is booming in Arkansas would be an understatement. The Natural State, especially its northeast corner, is a hub for steel manufacturing in the United States. Companies like Big River Steel and U.S. Steel have been drawn to Northeast Arkansas because of its talented manufacturing workforce, its strong infrastructure, and the presence of the Mississippi River. Big River Steel selected Mississippi County to build a new steel mill in 2014. At that time, it was the biggest economic development project in the state's history.

In 2020, U.S. Steel acquired Big River Steel. In 2022, U.S. Steel announced that it had selected Osceola, Arkansas, as the location for a new advanced steel-making facility. The company is investing $3 billion, the largest capital investment in Arkansas's history, and will ultimately create around 900 new jobs. These expansions have set the stage for Mississippi County, Arkansas, to be the top steel-producing county in the nation.

Today, on the Arkansas Inc. Podcast, I'm thrilled to welcome someone who has spent his career in the steel industry and now leads operations for Big River Steel, Dan Brown. Dan is the senior vice president and chief operating officer of Big River Steel. In addition to the Big River Steel operations, Dan has responsibility over the new mill BR2 set to begin operations in July of 2024.

Now, I'm going to cover some of Dan's bio so you can get a sense for his background before we get started. Dan has over 28 years of service with U.S. Steel, joining the company in 1994 as a management associate for the cold rolling division at the Irvin plant in Pennsylvania. In 2003, Dan relocated to U.S. Steel, Serbia, as plant manager and then plant manager for finishing in 10 operations.

Dan returned to the United States in 2006 as plant manager finishing operation at Fairfield Works. In 2007, he became plant manager primary operations at Fairfield Works and was named division manager iron-making at Gary Works, Indiana, in 2008 and later serving as division manager of steel-making and casting at Gary Works. He was promoted to plant manager primary operations at Gary Works in 2018.

In April of 2019, Dan was named general manager automotive operations with responsibilities for the Great Lakes Plant, Desco Coating, and the Midwest Sheet facilities before being promoted into his current role with Big River Steel. He also earned a Master's of Business Administration from Duquesne University. Dan Brown, welcome to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast.

Dan Brown:

Thank you, Clint. I appreciate you having me on today and the opportunity to talk to you today about Big River Steel.

Clint O'Neal:

You got it. Big shout out to the chairman of our AEDC council, John Newcomb. He's the one that kept pushing for you. You and I have known each other for a little while. But he said, "Clint, you've got to have Dan on your podcast," so appropriate to give him a shout-out there.

Dan Brown:

Absolutely. John's a great guy. I know, as we talk further, I can't say anything but great things about what the community has done for Big River Steel, not only Osceola and Mississippi County, but the state of Arkansas.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, we appreciate that. Mississippi County is loaded with good leaders. We had the opportunity to work with Clif Chitwood and Mallory Darby on a day-to-day basis with economic development projects. Having folks like John Newcomb in the community is just... A lot of people there make it a special place.

Dan Brown:

Absolutely. Everybody has been extremely supportive of Big River Steel. We try to be strong in the community here. It's great partnerships that we have along the lines with the names that you just mentioned.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, we appreciate hearing that. In reading your bio, it's clear how much experience you've had in the steel industry throughout the years. Tell us about your background, your career path, and how you got into the steel industry, and what led to you being the chief operating officer for Big River Steel.

Dan Brown:

Sure, Clint. You covered a lot of it, obviously. But I got into the steel industry directly out of college. When I graduated from Penn State University, I got my first job three days later, working in Pittsburgh at a steel plant. I was put into operations from the start. I've never really gotten out of it across my whole career. I've always enjoyed it.

The steel industry is 24/7. It's exciting. It's challenging. Every day is different. I've always enjoyed it. I used to think when I looked around me at work, the employees or the leaders that had 30 or 35-plus years... I considered those the old guys. I'm becoming one of those guys now. I'm coming up on 30 years myself. But we've moved around our whole lives. My wife and my family... I have three daughters. We moved around everywhere from Pittsburgh to Serbia, ex-Yugoslavia, back to Birmingham, as you said, to Gary Works, to Detroit, back to Pittsburgh, and then transferred down here to Osceola in July of 2021.

Across my time in operations, I've gotten to see a lot of different things within the company, a lot of transformations within United States Steel. Then, when we started looking at our strategy a few years ago... We look at our strategy every single day. You have to anymore, no matter what type of industry you're in, or you'll get passed up by your competitors. When we started looking at our strategy, we had some old integrated plants within the U.S. Steel footprint that still make fantastic products for the automotive industry and different types of heavy-grade pipe and tube and different niche markets. But we also wanted to be cost-competitive and also wanted to get into different markets with new technology.

We started looking at potentially building a greenfield site/potentially upgrading one of our existing plants. Then, the opportunity with Big River Steel came along. We looked at what was an incredible project. Started here, as you said, in 2014. It had become a really, really highly innovative, highly technical plant in Osceola, Arkansas, with just a great, talented, dynamic workforce.

When we started looking at the differences between building our own site and potentially acquiring a site like Big River Steel, it made all the sense in the world to come to Big River Steel and make it part of the United States Steel footprint. We got into a joint venture with Big River Steel and then had the option to actually acquire Big River Steel. We did that in January of 2021. Turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever seen in my career within United States Steel. We really did it for two reasons. One was the plant itself, the technology, the equipment, and what this plant is capable of doing. But more importantly, the workforce here is second to none. There's a lot of talent here with all the BRS team members. There's a lot of leadership here who's been involved with startup facilities/startup plants and had the experience to make a successful company.

U.S. Steel had acquired Big River Steel in January of 2021 up to this point. We made significant investments up through that time now, too. We're investing close to $4 billion within the last two years here on-site in Osceola.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, those are very gracious comments. They certainly mean a lot from you, Dan. You've moved around the world, contributing to U.S. Steel. Very happy that you like what you see here in Arkansas. For anyone unfamiliar, can you give us an overview of Big River Steel, what the company does, and what the products that are made there at Big River Steel?

Dan Brown:

Absolutely. Big River Steel is what the steel industry refers to as a mini mill. If you go back to our Gary Works plant, for example, which is a fantastic, outstanding integrated plant, the plant is over 100 years old. Blast furnace technology, different types of steel-making processes. Over the last 20 to 30 years, the mini mills have come up with technology that's very streamlined, very technical, uses a lot less labor to produce a ton of steel, and very, very cost-competitive. The mini mills, over the years, have gotten to the point where they can make almost any product that the industry needs within any type of market.

Big River Steel makes flat-rolled sheet steel. These are applications for your automobile, for example, the inside of doors, the inside of roofs, hoods, things like that. The appliance industry... Refrigerators, washers, dryers get stamped out of our steel. Shortly, at this facility, we'll be making steel for solar panels, the outer casings of them, steel roofs on top of shopping malls, things like that. Then, construction... Galvanized steel is a big market that we participate in, which is actually the building and construction material inside of buildings that you see along with studs that make up warehouses and complexes and things like that.

Big River Steel makes over 3 million tons per year of flat rolled sheet steel right now. When we get BR2 started up in the third quarter of this year, we'll actually be making over 6 million tons per year of steel within this footprint, which, to me, is very incredible. Clint, you touched on it early on. Mississippi County is the steel-making capital of the United States right now here in Arkansas. Big River Steel will be the largest... not only the largest but the most technologically advanced steel plant within all of North America when we're done and up and going in Q3.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, I certainly look forward to the tour. I think I already have plans to be there in Q3 right around that time due to what John has set up for our council. Really look forward to that tour. But could you expand on why Northeast Arkansas is such a hub for steel production?

Dan Brown:

Absolutely. There's a lot of advantages here. When you look at building a greenfield site... The previous group of managers here and investors did a fantastic job by looking at Osceola and making this the plant and the success it is today. A lot of the employees that were here from the beginning will tell you the story of... This was a soybean field. They came here to build a steel plant out of it, which is just incredible to me because if you go back to 2014, now, you're 10 years into this whole dynamic of Big River Steel being here and expanding on top of that. But you first start with logistics and transportation.

The Mississippi River is by far a huge advantage here: freight on top of the river, coils that you can ship out, steel that you can ship out anywhere in the United States by water starts on the Mississippi River. You have to have a good partner with the railroad. We do with the BNSF. It is the only railroad that we have inbound here. But they work incredibly well with us as a partner. The BNSF takes care of anything we need to do by rail in and out of Osceola. You also need to have good electricity rates, which we do with Entergy Arkansas. Another great partner that we have here. Entergy will supply not only BRS but BR2 with electricity for all of our electric arc furnaces within the steel industry here.

One other thing I would add... There's a huge solar farm being built to power a part of BR2, 250 megawatts of it. That'll be up and running when we bring the plant up. That's not our project, but that's Entergy Arkansas's partnership with BP Driver Solar. That will be sustainable energy, electricity coming into the footprint.

We will be Entergy Arkansas's number one customer within their whole entire footprint across the United States once we're up and running. On top of that, you have to be able to get very good, high-quality, cheap scrap or metallics that you use to remelt and recycle in your furnaces. One of the big advantages we had from the U.S. Steel side when we looked at acquiring Big River Steel was the synergies between Big River Steel and U.S. Steel because you had U.S. Steel, which was the top integrated plant or facility or company within North America acquiring Big River Steel, who was the top mini mill in North America. When we combined synergies there for scrap recyclable material/metallics... We have things going on in the future here with our mines up in Hibbing, Minnesota. It makes all the sense in the world. All those factors combined, the top four or five factors that I mentioned, they are probably 90-plus percent of the cost or inputs that we put into our steel and makes us a success for the products that we produce for our customers.

Clint O'Neal:

Dan, that's really good stuff. I appreciate you sharing that. It's very encouraging that a company like Bigger River Steel is finding all these assets in Arkansas. So useful. You touched on this earlier, but I just want to see if you want to add to it. What role do steel-making companies like Bigger River Steel play in the larger economy?

Dan Brown:

Steel companies play a huge role right now. If you look at projections over the next 10 years... This is even across the world. North America, in general, United States, is going to be the highest growth areas for steel-producing within the whole world. If you look around you, anything you touch these days has steel attached to it in some way, shape, or form. As the country gets more sustainable, when you look at solar farms, these solar fields/solar panels use a ton of steel. You look at the automotive industries, not only gas/diesel-type vehicles but going into electrical vehicles now. We make low-carbon steel for all those cars and trucks that are out on the road today.

On top of that, we just started up a non-grain-oriented electrical steel line here, Clint, that you've seen up in person. 450 million investment. That is electrical steel that's used for magnetic properties inside the engines and the motors of the electrical vehicle industry. That's a huge market coming on. Whether that's a hybrid or whether that's a straight EV electrical vehicle on the road, we make steel for that.

Pipe and tube... When you look at water transmission lines, gas transmission lines, anything underground or above ground across the United States, steel is used for those applications because of how strong it is in the properties and how tough it is. It lasts a long time, too. Steel in these pipelines will last anywhere from 50 to 60 to 70 years. On top of that, steel is recyclable. Anytime you see an old building torn down or you see cars that people get rid of that go to the junkyard or scrap or appliances that don't work anymore, all of that scrap is repurchased, remelt in our electric arc furnaces, and then made into steel for use in today's market.

As we go forward with the markets that we're looking at and the growth within the United States, steel is going to be all around any type of application. I think the future is extremely bright right now for Big River Steel and U.S. Steel in general.

Clint O'Neal:

Sure. Let's talk a little bit about the culture of Big River Steel. Tell us about the company and your favorite part of working there.

Dan Brown:

One of the things I would tell you that was really, really apparent when we looked at Big River Steel and did due diligence was... Okay, here's a brand new steel plant that was built within the last five or six years. Technology is incredible. The way that they constructed the plant, the original team at Big River Steel, the way they laid it out from a logistics standpoint, and the customers that they served... all top-notch/top-of-the-line decisions that they made at Big River Steel to make this plant successful.

One thing that really stood out on top of all the technology in the plant itself and how everything was streamlined was the workforce here. The amount of tons produced per employee here is a world-class number. The way the system is set up here is that the employees take on two or three jobs. Safety is our first priority. We would never make anybody do anything that's unsafe. We make sure that we have either automation out there or tools that people need out there and that people have the training out there to do these functions within the plant.

People will perform two or three different jobs compared to what similar facilities do. A very, very small number of people produce all 3 million-plus tons that comes out of this facility. People here are paid on high-quality steel that's produced, taking care of customers through shipments on time/on-time delivery performance. They're paid on low delay rates. Keep the production lines running. Keep the running safe, and produce a lot of high-quality steel for our customers. When people do that, and our workforce does that, the BRST members do that, people get paid very, very good wages out of this facility.

Our employees, the BRST members, are paid very, very well. Top pay rates within the area. This area, in general... When you start building plants out in places like Osceola, Arkansas, you tend to get a lot of employees with very, very good work ethics, people that are very intelligent, people that are very technical, people that have work ethics like no other. It's always a little bit of a running joke. But it's not. It's the truth. When you find someone that's either worked on a farm their whole life or gotten up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning on a farm, that's extremely hard work. When you bring people like that into a facility like this that understands equipment, machinery, technology, and they take even more training classes on how to operate different facilities and production lines, it's a win-win for everybody.

I can't say enough about the workforce that we have here in Osceola. We have employees that travel over an hour to work one way during the week to make sure they get to work here and perform here because of the pay system and because of the culture.

The culture itself... I would tell you I've never seen a culture like this in my life. It's very, very difficult to get what Big River Steel has bottled up and keep that culture going. The BRS team members, every single one of them that works here, is very, very proud of what they built here in the soybean field and the success they've had. They should be. They should be very proud of what they did because the story here is incredible. As we keep making investments here and moving on and building up doubling capacity here and building production lines, value-added lines, being able to serve more and more customers with different products, everyone here takes on the challenge. Everybody here works as a team. Everybody here comes to the forefront to make things work and make it a success. To your point, Clint, the workforce was very impressive from day one and continues to impress me as I go along.

Clint O'Neal:

Dan, tell us about your experience with the business climate in Arkansas, everything from environmental permitting to your communication with economic development and the governor's office.

Dan Brown:

At U.S. Steel, we've had a very, very positive experience with the state of Arkansas. I'll go back to BR2. With the success of BRS, and investing in our first mini mill, and acquiring Big River Steel, we looked at potentially putting in another steel plant somewhere either down South or in the Mid-South. Again, because of the success of Big River Steel. When we looked at that, we came up with really 40-plus locations, narrowed that down to seven, then narrowed it down to three. We ended up picking the site right next door to us here for BR2 in Osceola, Arkansas.

One of the main reasons for that is, I believe... My boss, Dave Burritt, who's the president and chief executive officer of U.S. Steel... I think it was less than six months from when he talked to Governor Asa Hutchinson about this project that we had a shovel in the ground down here. When we had talked to the Governor, Clint, and talked to your group and talked to your team and talked to everyone involved, we kept thinking that there were going to be more and more barriers and more and more things to overcome. The permitting that you referenced, the environmental permitting, is a big deal. I mean, we want to be a good partner to the planet. We want to be a sustainable partner and have everything in line. But people worked like crazy with us around the clock to get this done. It was in record time, less than six months from that phone call that we were able to go next door here and start building BR2. I would tell you that wouldn't have happened anywhere else outside of the state of Arkansas. It's really an incredible story.

Then, fast-forward two years later here, we're going to start this place up in a few months here. It's a great success for U.S. Steel. I can't speak highly enough of the cooperation and the partnership that we've gotten across Osceola, Mississippi County, and the state of Arkansas to get this done. It was a big deal for us. I mean, a $3 billion project... which, in our company's history, 120-plus years, the largest project in U.S. Steel history, the largest project in the state of Arkansas history. It's a huge deal for us bringing this plan online.

Clint O'Neal:

Dan, what would you tell the person who's listening to this podcast that says, "I know how to work hard. I'm looking for a great opportunity in my career, but I don't have any experience specifically in the steel industry." How would they get into the steel industry and, specifically, into a career pathway at BRS?

Dan Brown:

We take applications from any type of background: any person that wants to apply, that has different work experience or different traits/different skill levels. We'll take a chance on anybody. Because once you prove yourself and get in here, we have training programs. We have great partnerships with ANC up the road here. We have great partnerships with Arkansas State University that we're starting to collaborate with. We will get different skill sets and skill levels and training for people that they need to in other jobs. Once people prove themselves around this plant, it doesn't matter whether you're in production or finance or IT or engineering. If people want to try something different out and they show the aptitude and the drive and the intelligence and the work ethic to do that job, people will interview them and take a chance on them to do something different in life because people have different... They have different aspects of the job that they want to try/different aspects of the plant.

One thing that BR2 has really opened up here is we're going to more than double our workforce. As I said before, we're investing close to $4 billion. That's wrapped up really in three separate projects. One is a Galvalume Line, which is steel coated with an aluminized zinc coating for strip mall roofs, applications, appliances, things like that. The NGO line that we talked about... That was $450 million. Then, BR2, which you talked about, which is the largest investment in U.S. Steel's history and the state of Arkansas's history... We're going to need more than double the employees. Think about that.

The current workforce that we have and the culture we have... We're going to double that and have that many new employees working here. But there's so much opportunity here right now to either get in here, get a foot in the door, become part of the team, or, once you get in here, advance in different ways across the organization to keep moving up to make a better life for yourself.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, I guess not everybody can start in the steel industry three days after college, but good to hear there's opportunities to enter the industry and that you're open to that.

Dan Brown:

Absolutely. We do have training programs with local high schools where we do get some employees that spend some time here even before graduation if they see a career path coming in here. That part of it has worked out extremely well. Again, our partnership with Arkansas Northeastern College has worked out extremely well in getting this place up and running.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, that's good. I'm sure there's teenagers in the community that see your company as a great pathway for a career plan. We talk a lot in Arkansas about how going to a four-year university is a valuable experience for a lot of people, but it's not for everybody. For the youth in a community to be able to think about their future and think about a really good salary that can come from getting out there and working hard in the steel industry, it can provide a lot of hope. We sure appreciate Big River Steel and the other companies that do that around the state.

Dan Brown:

Absolutely. Then, Clint, one other thing I would add... People tend to view the steel industry as a commodity-type business. Or they picture, from 100 years ago, a guy shoveling coal into a blast furnace, things like that. It's completely changed. We make really innovative technical products. I mean, we do things within our steel and within our processes. We invent things every day. We have product development groups/research groups. We have patents on things that we've invented that have really changed the steel industry. On top of that, too, the employees that work here and the BRS team members that work here... highly technical jobs. Not a guy shoveling coal into a blast furnace anymore but highly technical jobs: watching a process, watching parameters, being involved in making major decisions, multimillion-dollar decisions on a daily basis to keep things running. The industry has changed a lot, I would tell you, over my 30 years within the steel industry.

Clint O'Neal:

Sure. That's all great material, Dan. I really appreciate you spending some time with us. Before I let you go, a couple of questions just on a personal note. You've traveled all around the world, all around the United States, different jobs you've had with U.S. Steel. Have you had much time to spend around the state of Arkansas?

Dan Brown:

Not as much as I'd like to. I work a lot, obviously. But I've enjoyed my time down in Arkansas. As you said, Clint, we've moved around our whole life. We try to do different things within the areas that we live in and within the culture that we live in. We've done a ton of things in Arkansas, going to Batesville for races: and going to some of the towns around here with different festivals that they have. We're going to the Wilson Crawfish Festival with my family on this Saturday coming up. Things like that. We try to find different things around the communities to do. We're very active in the community as BRS. We try to find different things to support those communities, too.

I would tell you, I haven't got on the northwest side of the state up toward the University of Arkansas. I'd like to do that at some point in time and travel there, at least visit the university and the areas over there, too. But we've really enjoyed our time down here for two reasons, really. The people have been fantastic. People have been very, very accepting and accommodating of ourselves. My family can't say enough about the neighborhood that we moved into here. I live in Osceola. On my street, probably almost everybody works for BRS or works for a contractor that serves BRS in different ways. The people have been fantastic. Then, I grew up in the north. As much as people complain about the 100/105-degree days in July, I'd take them any day over the snow and ice the older I get. The weather in Arkansas has been very, very good for us, too.

Clint O'Neal:

That's good. That's good. Any favorite restaurants around Arkansas or in the community?

Dan Brown:

We end up going to the Wilson Café quite a bit 'cause in the town next to it. We do that quite a bit. When I get a chance to go to Little Rock, probably once per quarter for different business reasons... There's a ton of restaurants within Little Rock. Then, there's not a great place to go for barbecue somewhere in Arkansas. We figure that out, too. We're big fans of the food down here. I haven't quite learned how to... We did buy a smoker about two years ago when we moved down here. I would embarrass myself with my neighbors for what they do. But we do enjoy the barbecue around Arkansas.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, I hope you get a little time to figure out the smoker. It sounds like you've got a great neighborhood. I'm sure they would be more than happy to come over to see how you're doing.

Dan Brown:

For sure. Like I said, the community here is very, very supportive of Big River Steel. The employees are very, very supportive of the community. One thing about community involvement we do... It's not just about donating money. Anybody could donate money to causes and for kids camps and things like that, which we do. But one thing our employees really, really key on and do specifically is be a part of the community. If we're sponsoring kids' camps around the neighborhoods, our employees go and take time out of their personal life and actually coach and run those kids' camps, things like that. Not only do we donate money to different causes, which we think are extremely valuable, we also make sure that our people volunteer. There's never a lack of volunteers. People always want to give back to the community and show their appreciation for it.

Clint O'Neal:

Well, we appreciate hearing that. With that, we'll wrap it up. I've been talking today with Dan Brown, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Big River Steel. Dan, thanks so much for taking the time to visit with me today.

Dan Brown:

Thank you, Clint. I appreciate it.

Clint O'Neal:

You've been listening to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. This is Clint O'Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. You can subscribe to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast apps. For more information about AEDC and to sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit arkansasEDC.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and YouTube. Thanks for listening.