Washington, Aug 22
US Vice President JD Vance has announced a $1 billion investment by Cleveland-Cliffs in its steelmaking operations in Middletown, Ohio, casting the project as evidence of a wider manufacturing revival under President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Middletown Works facility in his hometown, Vance said the investment would modernise the plant, protect existing jobs and create new employment.
“We’re here to announce that Cleveland Cliffs is making today right here in Middletown, Ohio, a $1 billion investment in transformational manufacturing right here in our home,” Vance said.
The company will upgrade its iron-making furnace and introduce new technology to improve its operations and the area’s air quality, he said.
“We’re going to implement cutting edge new technology to optimize furnace operation and improve middletown’s air quality,” Vance said.
The Vice President linked the project to the Trump administration’s trade, energy and immigration policies. He argued that Washington had, for decades, allowed American manufacturing to move to countries offering cheaper labour and fewer benefits for workers.
Vance said Middletown had experienced the consequences as factories closed or moved production to China and Mexico.
“They spent the last 40 years telling you it didn’t matter if we made things right here or whether we made them in overseas countries,” he said.
The Vice President said tariffs and restrictions on illegal immigration were central to the administration’s effort to strengthen domestic manufacturing and give American workers priority in hiring.
“What we did is we told American corporations that if you wanted new workers, you got to start by training and hiring your own countrymen,” he said.
Vance said factory construction employment had increased by 83,000 since Trump’s inauguration. He also claimed that demand for metal-cutting and related machine tools had reached its highest level in a century.
Manufacturing had created 229,000 jobs during 2026, while wages for workers in the sector had risen 4.2 per cent year-on-year, he said. The figures were presented by Vance during the speech, and no independent supporting data was included in the supplied material.
The Vice President also addressed the employment of foreign workers, accusing some companies of using overseas labour to reduce wages. He said the administration was prepared to impose tariffs on companies manufacturing outside the United States and selling those goods in the American market.
Vance described the Cleveland-Cliffs project as part of an effort to combine industrial expansion with cleaner production.
“As much as the far left says that you can’t have industry but also clean air and water, we’re going to show in this facility, that’s exactly what you can have,” he said.
The speech was also deeply personal. Vance recalled that his grandfather had worked at the same facility, then known as Armco Steel, for nearly four decades as a welder.
“Papa was a welder in this place for 40 years, and today his grandson stands here as the Vice President of these United States,” he said.
Vance grew up in Middletown and later chronicled his family’s experience in the struggling industrial community in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”. He represented Ohio in the US Senate before becoming Trump’s running mate and assuming office as Vice President.
