Nucor rolling mill starts operating

Electric arc furnace (EAF) steel producer Nucor Corp. says it rolled the first steel plate at its new mill in Brandenburg, Kentucky, in late December. The company’s scrap-fed melt shop in Brandenburg began operating last October.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor says the Brandenburg site’s personnel will focus on final commissioning of the mill in the first quarter of 2023 and also will begin shipping product to customers during the quarter.

“Congratulations to our more than 400 teammates for achieving this important milestone and executing one of the safest mill start-ups in Nucor history, while also delivering the project on time and on budget,” Nucor President and CEO Leon Topalian says. “We are looking forward to supplying not only the highest quality steel but also the most sustainable plate products in the world for our nation’s military, infrastructure, heavy equipment, offshore wind and other markets.”

The company says its Nucor Steel Brandenburg “will be among only a few mills globally—and the only mill in the United States—capable of manufacturing at scale the heavy gauge plate used in monopile foundations for offshore wind towers.”

The steel producing and metal recycling firm also says the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $300 billion for clean energy development and climate programs, supports the Biden Administration’s announced goal to build 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. “That could result in approximately 7.5 million tons of additional steel demand,” Nucor says.

Nucor says its Brandenburg plate mill is a $1.7 billion capital investment with the ability to produce 1.2 million tons of steel annually. “It is also the first steel mill in the world to pursue certification under LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) v4, which is more stringent than previous LEED rating systems and provides a globally recognized framework for sustainability achievement,” Nucor states.

“We are proud to bring high-quality manufacturing jobs to the Commonwealth of Kentucky and look forward to being part of the Brandenburg community for many decades,” says Johnny Jacobs, vice president and general manager of Nucor Steel Brandenburg.

In addition to its steelmaking capacity, Nucor owns the Cincinnati-based David J. Joseph Co., which processes and trades ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal, as well as pig iron, hot briquetted iron (HBI), direct reduced iron (DRI) and ferroalloys.