Nucor Steel-South Carolina (Darlington)

Large load · 300 STEEL MILL RD, Darlington, SC

Nucor Steel-South Carolina in Darlington, South Carolina, is a division of Nucor Corporation and was Nucor's first steel mill. It has been in operation for over 50 years and uses electric arc furnaces to melt scrap into steel products, a process the company describes as very energy intensive. Duke Energy Progress serves the mill. In 2025 Nucor's subsidiary Universal Industrial Gases announced a nearly $100 million on-site industrial gas plant at the same address to supply the mill.

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Overview

Nucor's comments to the South Carolina Public Service Commission state that the Darlington mill is served by Duke Energy Progress. Nucor described electric arc furnace steelmaking as still very energy intensive, and said that reliable and economic electric power is critical to the ability of its mills to produce steel and remain competitive. Nucor filed as a current Duke Energy Progress customer whose cost and availability of power could be affected by a rise in very large new data center demand. The filing is docket 2026-138-E, a generic proceeding on new large load additions in South Carolina.

Profile

On-site industrial gas plant: In March 2025 Universal Industrial Gases, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nucor Corporation, announced a new operation in Darlington County. The company is investing nearly $100 million in a 200,000-square-foot facility at 300 Steel Mill Road, which will provide on-site industrial gases to Nucor's Darlington County steel mill. The project is part of Nucor's strategy to produce its own industrial gases for use in its steel mills. Universal Industrial Gases said it expected to commission the facilities to support Nucor Darlington at the end of 2025.

Mill and furnace: The Darlington mill is an electric arc furnace steel mill. The Global Energy Monitor profile records the Darlington plant as operating electric arc furnace technology and lists its capacity as 910 thousand tonnes per year. The Nucor filing says the mill was the company's first steel mill and has been in operation for more than 50 years. Nucor's other South Carolina mill at Berkeley is served by Santee Cooper, so the state's two Nucor steel mills are on different utilities.