Nucor to add melt shop in western US

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor Corp. says its board of directors has approved the construction of a new melt shop at one of its existing bar mills in the western United States. The new $100 million electric arc furnace (EAF) melt shop will have the capacity to produce 600,000 tons annually, with start-up expected in 2024.

The announcement comes just one day after the steelmaker disclosed its intention to build a high-tonnage EAF sheet mill in Ohio, Pennsylvania or West Virginia.

Nucor says it has 15 bar mills in the U.S. that make rebar and other types of steel in bar shapes. A map on the company’s website shows Nucor has one bar mill along (but just east of) the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, and six bar mills west of the Mississippi, running from east to west: Sedalia, Missouri; Jewett, Texas; Norfolk, Nebraska; Plymouth, Utah; Kingman, Arizona; and Seattle.

The Recycling Today list of steel mills in North America indicates all seven of those location already have some existing melt shop capacity

“The new melt shop will help us maintain our market-leading position in steel bar production and help us meet anticipated growth for bar products from our customers in the Western United States,” says Dan Needham, executive vice president of bar and rebar fabrication products for Nucor.

Nucor says its 15 bar mills “manufacture a broad range of steel products, including concrete reinforcing bars, hot-rolled bars, rounds, light shapes, structural angles, channels, wire rod and highway products in carbon and alloy steels.” Nucor estimates its bar steel production capacity at around 9.5 million tons per year.