Dive Brief:
- Steelmaker Nucor plans to invest $280 million to expand and add production lines to its steel plate mill in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the company announced last month.
- The expansion will enable the company to support its expanded steel coil and plate product offerings, producing thinner and stronger plates in the U.S., according to the state release.
- Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year and operations are scheduled to start by the summer of 2027.
Dive Insight:
The investment in the Tuscaloosa site is part of Nucor’s transition away from its Texas plant, which it announced plans to close in May.
Nucor is shifting production from the Texas site to Tuscaloosa as well as steel plate mills in in Cofield, North Carolina, and a recently opened $1.7 billion facility in Brandenburg, Kentucky.
Despite the recent plant consolidations, Nucor’s demand is growing thanks to federal incentives, particularly the CHIPS and Science Act, President and CEO Leon Topalian told analysts on an earnings call in October.
“The reshoring efforts supported by the CHIPS and Science Act has promulgated announcements for at least 37 projects worth an estimated $370 billion,” Topalian said. “Nucor is already delivering steel products to a few of these. But these projects can take several years to complete and will shift from one steel product to another as construction progresses.”
To further leverage federal incentives, the steelmaker broke ground last month on a $3.1 billion sheet steel mill in Apple Grove, West Virginia, the largest investment in its history.
And in August, the company broke ground on a $350 million rebar micro mill in Lexington, North Carolina.
“A lot has already been said about the magnitude of the three steel intensive megatrends, each fueled by supportive federal legislation,” Topalian said. “We like to think of these three as the rebuilding, repowering and reshoring of the U.S. economy. And with Nucor’s unrivaled scale and diversity, we are favorably positioned to capitalize on these growth drivers.
