Calcutta: Betting big on President Donald Trump's "Buy American" drive, JSW Steel has committed fresh investment of $500 million to the US, taking a pledge to pour in over a billion dollar into steel making facilities in Ohio and Texas.

The Indian company signed an agreement with the US government for the proposed investment at the SelectUSA Investment Summit at the National Harbour, Maryland, outside Washington D.C. on Thursday.

US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and Jayant Acharya, member on the JSW Steel board and director (commercial and marketing), signed the agreement.

The fresh investment will be made in Ohio where JSW has acquired a company called Aero Junction in March for $80 million.

In the first phase, JSW plans to revamp and restart the electric arc furnace (EAF) and the slab caster, and modernise the hot strip mill. The proposed investment, including the cost of acquisition, is expected to be approximately $250 million.

In the second phase, depending upon the economic viability and prevailing market conditions, JSW may add another EAF as well as manufacturing equipment at the hot strip mill to make the Ohio unit a fully integrated one with three million tonnes of capacity.

The proposed investment in the second phase could be in the range of $250 million.

Earlier this year, the company had announced a $500-million investment in the plate and pipe mill in Texas, which was bought 11 years ago by JSW.

The loss-making unit, bought for a billion dollar from Prithviraj Jindal, elder brother of Sajjan Jindal, promoter of JSW Steel, remained a drag on the balance sheet of the India-focused company.

However, the protectionist measures taken by the Trump administration to slap a 25 per cent tax on imported steel from several companies and the "Buy American" pledge helped the Texan unit to make positive EBIDTA.

According to Parth Jindal, director JSW Steel (USA) Inc, "It is our fundamental belief that because of the rich availability of scrap metal and abundance of natural gas, making steel through the EAF route is highly competitive in the US from a global standpoint.

"Over the past few months we have announced the backward integration of our plate and pipe mill in Baytown, Texas. Through our acquisition of Acero Junction we further our product range as we will be able to supply American melted and manufactured hot rolled coils.

"It is our intention to further augment our capacity in Acero Junction over the next few years and to take the combined capacity of JSW US to 4mtpa (3mtpa at Acero and 1mtpa at Baytown), which will be 100 per cent American melted and manufactured."