Nucor Steel Hertford County
Large load · 1505 RIVER RD, Cofield, NC
Nucor Steel Hertford County is an electric arc furnace plate mill at Cofield, North Carolina, on the Chowan River. It has operated since September 2000, employs about 500 people and runs around the clock, melting scrap in an electric arc furnace and rolling it into plate. Nucor Corporation is the owner and operator. In 2025 Nucor was reported to be buying hundreds of additional acres in Hertford County, and a $875 million U.S. Forged Rings plant is to be built next to the mill.
Overview
North Carolina's Division of Air Quality describes the mill as a plate steel manufacturing plant at 1505 River Road in Cofield that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. A conveyor feeds scrap metal to the electric arc furnace, where energy supplied through a carbon rod electrode and a bottom rod anode melts the scrap; molten steel is tapped into ladles for casting and rolling. Barge, rail and truck bring the scrap and carry the finished plate. The mill is one of three Nucor plate mills, which together have a capacity of about 3.5 million tons of plate a year.
Profile
- Heat treat line
- In August 2008 Nucor announced about $110 million for a plate heat treating facility at Hertford County, with estimated annual capacity of 120,000 tons and the ability to produce heat treated plate from 3/16 through 2 inches thick. At the time the mill had an annual capacity of approximately 1.6 million tons.
- Land purchases and the U.S. Forged Rings plant
- Coastal Review reported in October 2025 that, according to WRAL, Nucor had purchased hundreds of additional acres in the county that year. In February 2026 Gov. Josh Stein announced that U.S. Forged Rings will build a three-phase, $875 million production facility, expected to create 625 jobs in its first two phases, adjacent to Nucor's Hertford County steel mill. The General Assembly also funded a public dock on the Chowan River and an access road to it.
Facility
- Activity
- Electric arc furnace plate steel mill
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- Aug 1, 2008
- Nucor announces about $110 million for a plate heat treating facility at Hertford County.
Nucor to Add Heat Treat Facility at Hertford Plate Mill - Association for Iron & Steel Technology
- Jul 29, 2026
- Mill christens two battery-electric switcher locomotives replacing diesel units.
Zero equals big savings