Nucor to shutter Texas mill

Charlotte, North Carolina-based scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaker Nucor Corp. says it will cease operations at its Longview, Texas, EAF mill as part of a reorganization of its steel plate group.

Nucor says the Longview mill had 100,000 tons of annual capacity, a volume that can be absorbed by its new mill in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and other Nucor plants.

“All Nucor Steel Longview teammates will be offered employment opportunities at other Nucor divisions,” the steel producer says.

The facility was purchased by Nucor in 2016 from the former Milwaukee-based Joy Global for approximately $29 million. (That firm was itself acquired by heavy equipment maker Komatsu the same year.)

The mill in Longview produces heavy steel plate, and Nucor says assets at the Longview will be evaluated and potentially redeployed to other Nucor mills.

“I’d like to thank our teammates at Nucor Steel Longview for their outstanding performance and achievements during the past several years,” says Al Behr, executive vice president at Nucor. “My hope is that all our teammates will choose to remain a part of our Nucor family and accept positions at other Nucor divisions.”

Nucor says it expects the phase out of production to occur in the third quarter of this year. Production will be transferred to Nucor’s remaining plate mills, including the one in Brandenburg, plus facilities in Hertford County, North Carolina, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.