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Meet James Ritt – Head of planning and shipping

Portrait of James Ritt

Tell us about your journey to Stegra!

"The reason I like the steel industry, and especially operations, is there’s always something new happening. No two days are alike. There’s always an opportunity to see something new and make a new decision about things. This is my third steel mill start-up, and I really enjoy the excitement of starting up a new facility, not only that it’s exciting at work but also to see how it impacts the community at large. We don’t build steel mills in big cities anymore. We put them in places where there’s a labor opportunity, where the community could use some economic growth, like in my previous projects in small-town Arkansas and Mobile, Alabama. So we get to sit back and watch the community benefit from the new income, tax revenue, and opportunities. It also leads to other things, like new restaurants and hotels.

What excites me about this project is that I get all of that, plus we’re really changing a commodity for good. We’re changing the way the world thinks about steel. We’ve been making steel the same basic way for so many years, and for all those years, it’s been the same dirty, polluting industry. And now we’re going to change that. And that is super exciting. I’ve got kids. I want my kids to live in a better world. And if we can set the example, not only for steel but other industries as well, I hope we can inspire other companies to do things in a different way."