The South Korean car manufacturer is expected to construct the $5.8 billion plant near Donaldsonville, with the new facility set to create 5,500 direct and indirect jobs, CBS said Monday.
President Trump will announce the plans along with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry at the White House at 2 p.m. while touting domestic manufacturing and the first Hyundai steel plant to move overseas, the White House confirmed to The Post.
The project will be part of a planned new $20 billion US investment for Hyundai, according to CNBC.
The Asian car-maker already has factories in Alabama and Georgia, but this steel plant would be its first overseas steel facility and supply steel to the company’s factories in the nearby states.
Trump announced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum in February on all foreign-made metals but said those produced in the US would not be impacted.
“I’m simplifying our tariffs and steel and aluminum so that everyone can understand exactly what it means. It’s 25%, without exceptions or exemptions,” Trump said in February.
“And that’s all countries, no matter where it comes from, all countries. If it’s made in the United States of America, there is no tariff, zero,” he said.
The Hyundai announcement comes amid Trump’s global steel tariff threats and his upcoming April 2 deadline to install reciprocal other tariffs — and incentives for foreign companies to move to the US.
Other foreign companies, including Japan’s Softbank and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., recently announced major planned investments into the US to try to curry favor with the administration before the tariffs kick in.
South Korea is one of the top 10 countries with trade deficits with the US that favor them. The Asian country will likely be targeted in the White House’s April 2 global announcement intended to reciprocate the same tariffs that America’s trading partners levy on it.
“April 2nd is going to be liberation day for America. We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, friend and foe,” Trump said Friday about the upcoming tariff announcements.
Hyundai CEO José Muñoz, speaking to Axios before Trump came to power in January, said the then-president-elect’s promised tariff policies incentivized the company to come to the US.
“We decided to invest big time in America as the most important market,” Muñoz said.
Hyundai CEO José Muñoz, speaking to Axios before Trump came to power in January, said the then-president-elect’s promised tariff policies incentivized the company to come to the US.
“So the best way for us to navigate tariffs is to increase localization.”
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