Media reports in Michigan are unveiling a plan by an Ohio-based company to assemble nearly 1,000 acres of land in rural Michigan on which to locate a steel mill.

An online report about the potential project by Crain’s Detroit Business indicates Frankin, Ohio-based New Steel International Inc. is assembling the land in cooperation with economic development officials in the town of Durand and Shiawassee County, Michigan. Shiawassee County is located between Flint and Lansing in south central Michigan.

The Crain’s article indicates New Steel International is seeking a $7 billion loan through the federal government’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, citing clean energy and environmentally friendly manufacturing aspects of its project. The article also refers to iron pellets as a feedstock for the mill, as currently designed.

A representative from New Steel International, quoted by Crain’s, would not confirm that automakers were on board as customers for the mill’s planned products, but he said the reporter’s sources who pointed to that prospect were “well-informed.”

The LinkedIn page of New Steel International states the firm “designs, builds and operates state-of-the-art steel mills “ and that it is “owned and controlled by a group of professionals who have built their reputations in providing superior consulting and engineering services to the heavy industrial ferrous and nonferrous metals sector worldwide.” It lists as one of its projects a mill for GJ Steel pcl in Thailand.