Dive Brief:
- Nucor plans to invest $115 million to build a utility structures production facility in Crawfordsville, Indiana, according to a state release on Wednesday.
- The new facility will be automated, use straight-line production, and include advanced processes in dipping steel in molten zinc. The plant will also provide various utility structures needed for power grid hardening and energy projects and EV charging stations.
- The new plant will be located adjacent to its sheet steel mill. The company spent $290 million to expand its product capabilities last year.
Dive Insight:
The new business unit comes as the demand for utility infrastructure and energy projects increases due to the Inflation Reduction Act, the company said. Nucor expects the IRA to add approximately two million to three million tons of yearly demand for wind, solar and transmission projects, Chair, President and CEO Leon Topalian said said in an April earnings call.
The IRA is one of three federal laws that Nucor is leveraging for their manufacturing incentives, and which will provide Nucor a combined $975 billion of funding or tax incentives, the CEO said in the earnings call.
“As our nation continues to replace its aging electric grid, extend transmission infrastructure to connect renewable generation locations and modernize its digital network, we see tremendous growth potential in the need to build this critical infrastructure using some of the cleanest, most sustainable steel in the world,” Topalian said in a December release.
The utility structure facility will be part of Nucor’s towers and structures business unit, which was formed after the company acquired Summit Utility Structures, a metal and steel producer, last year.
Construction for the Indiana facility is expected to begin either late 2023 to early 2024 and production is anticipated to start by mid-2025. The new facility will also create up to 200 jobs by the end of 2027, according to the release.
In December, Nucor announced it was expanding its towers and structures business unit, which included building two utility structures plants for a combined investment of $270 million.
The company announced the first utility structure plant in February, announcing a $125 million investment to build a production plant in Decatur, Alabama.
