US backs revival of Trinidad steel plant to cut reliance on China for critical minerals

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau visited Trinidad this week to preside over plans to revive a mothballed steel plant on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate in south Trinidad, part of a US push to secure critical supplies from the region rather than from rivals such as China.

The plant, closed for more than a decade, is to be revived through a joint state and private sector venture worth $750 million, with the prospect of employing more than 1,000 mostly local workers. Output would serve the local and export markets, mainly the US.

Executives from Colorado-based Pinnacle Steel, Pennsylvania-based Vanadium Corporation and state company Plipdeco joined government officials for the announcement.

Landau likened the revival to “Lazarus arising from the dead”. “We let a lot of our critical supply chain completely fall out of our hands,” he said. “We’re dependent on a foreign country that may not have our best interests at heart.”

Investment plans

Edwin Bennet, chief executive of Pinnacle Steel and Vanadium Corporation, put the initial investment at $250 million to have the plant ready for production by the end of next year, with a further $500 million planned later to double jobs to 1,000.

“Our vision is to produce the equivalent of 50 per cent of American consumption of vanadium,” he said, adding that the project would put Trinidad “on the map” in Western critical mineral supply chains outside China.

Landau was due to travel on to Guyana, where he was expected to speak on a $150 million joint venture to produce and export bauxite from mines south-west of Georgetown.

Regional context

Landau is the latest senior US official to visit Guyana and Trinidad, both of which have openly supported Trump administration policies, including its actions earlier this year to remove and capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Washington has meanwhile pressed most Caricom members to accept non-national deportees. Antigua and Barbuda, which has resisted, has faced tourist visa restrictions, a development Prime Minister Gaston Browne has linked directly to that resistance.