Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa

Large load · 1700 HOLT ROAD, Tuscaloosa, AL

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa, on Holt Road in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, is an electric arc furnace plate mill in Nucor's Plate Mill Group. In November 2023 Nucor approved $280 million to modernize the rolling mill, adding thinner, stronger plate and a new product line, with full operation expected by summer 2027. Nucor has not published the mill's electric demand or supply terms, though it names the cost and availability of electricity as a risk to its steel production.

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Overview

Tuscaloosa is one of three plate mills in Nucor's Plate Mill Group, with Hertford County, North Carolina, and Brandenburg, Kentucky, which together have about 3 million tons a year of cut-to-length and discrete plate capacity. The plates go into barges, bridges, heavy equipment, rail cars, tanks, ships, wind towers and pressure vessels.

Profile

A $280 million rolling mill modernization: Nucor's board approved $280 million in November 2023 to modernize the plate mill, including a new mill stand. The Tuscaloosa County Economic Development Authority said the project would expand current product lines, add a product not made domestically, start construction by the end of 2023 and be fully operational by summer 2027, retaining more than 400 jobs.

Electricity as a cost risk: Nucor's release for the project lists the availability and cost of electricity and natural gas among the factors that could raise its cost of steel production. That exposure is greatest at an electric arc furnace plant like Tuscaloosa, whose melt shop draws heavily on the grid.