Steelmaker Nucor plans to cease production at its manufacturing facility in Longview, Texas, according to a May 24 news release.
Nucor expects to begin phasing out production at the Longview plant in Q3 and will move production operations to its remaining steel plate mills in Cofield, North Carolina; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and a recently opened $1.7 billion facility in Brandenburg, Kentucky.
The steelmaker purchased the Longview plant in 2016 for approximately $29 million, which produced 100,000 tons of heavy steel plates a year.
All Longview employees will be offered opportunities at other Nucor divisions, the steelmaker said in its release. The plant’s assets will be evaluated and deployed across Nucor’s other steel plant mills.
Despite the closure of the Longview plant, steelmakers like Nucor and Commercial Metals Co. are gearing up to take advantage of federal and state-funded projects that are sparking an increase in demand.
The passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act will provide a combined $975 billion of funding or tax incentives, Nucor Chair, President and CEO Leon Topalian said on an April earnings call.
“Taken together, we believe that these three programs have the potential to generate up to eight million tons of incremental steel demand per year over the balance of this decade,” Topalian said.
The company also expects the IRA to add approximately 2 million to 3 million tons of yearly demand for wind, solar and transmission projects, Topalian said.
“There also have been more than 30 announced semiconductor plants or expansions in response to the CHIPS Act,” Topalian said. “These are massive steel intensive factories that take billions of dollars and years to build and Nucor’s unrivaled domestic production capabilities and low carbon footprint position us favorably to provide the steel for these projects.”
Nucor’s sales last quarter, however, were not as positive, with net sales down 17% in Q1 YoY, hitting $8.71 billion.
