Nucor Board of Directors Approves Funding for New Pacific Northwest Rebar Micro Mill

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Feb 21, 2024, 08:30 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced today that the company's Board of Directors approved $860 million to construct a 650,000-tons-per-year rebar micro mill in the Pacific Northwest. This will be Nucor's fourth and largest rebar micro mill, with approximately 50 percent more production capacity than the mill currently under construction in North Carolina. Nucor continues to evaluate potential locations, and the project is expected to take two years to construct, subject to regulatory approvals.

"The rebar we produce at our Nucor micro mills is made from nearly 100 percent recycled scrap, making it some of the cleanest steel made anywhere in the world," said Leon Topalian, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nucor. "This new rebar micro mill in the Pacific Northwest will help Nucor maintain its leadership in the steel bar market and further execute our strategy to better serve our customers west of the Rocky Mountains, which also includes the addition of a melt shop at our Arizona bar mill."

The new mill will produce a full range of rebar sizes and will have spooling capabilities. Rebar is used primarily in the construction of roads, buildings, and other structures. With the increase in U.S. infrastructure investments, the domestic rebar market is expected to show continued strength.

Nucor currently has 15 bar mills strategically located across the United States that manufacture a broad range of steel products, including concrete reinforcing bars, hot-rolled bars, rounds, light shapes, structural angles, channels, wire rod and highway products in carbon and alloy steels. Four of the bar mills have a significant focus on manufacturing special bar quality (SBQ) and wire rod products. Steel produced by Nucor bar mills serves numerous end markets, including the agricultural, automotive, construction, energy, furniture, machinery, metal building, railroad, recreational equipment, shipbuilding, heavy truck and trailer market segments. Nucor's bar mill capacity as of December 31, 2023, is approximately 9.6 million tons per year.

About Nucor
Nucor and its affiliates are manufacturers of steel and steel products, with operating facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Products produced include: carbon and alloy steel -- in bars, beams, sheet and plate; hollow structural section tubing; electrical conduit; steel racking; steel piling; steel joists and joist girders; steel deck; fabricated concrete reinforcing steel; cold finished steel; precision castings; steel fasteners; metal building systems; insulated metal panels; overhead doors; steel grating; wire and wire mesh; and utility structures. Nucor, through The David J. Joseph Company and its affiliates, also brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron and hot briquetted iron/direct reduced iron; supplies ferro-alloys; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap. Nucor is North America's largest recycler.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this news release are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties which we expect will or may occur in the future and may impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. The words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "intend," "project," "may," "will," "should," "could" and similar expressions are intended to identify those forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's best judgment based on current information, and, although we base these statements on circumstances that we believe to be reasonable when made, there can be no assurance that future events will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking information. As such, the forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may vary materially from the projected results and expectations discussed in this news release. Factors that might cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (1) competitive pressure on sales and pricing, including pressure from imports and substitute materials; (2) U.S. and foreign trade policies affecting steel imports or exports; (3) the sensitivity of the results of our operations to general market conditions, and in particular, prevailing market steel prices and changes in the supply and cost of raw materials, including pig iron, iron ore and scrap steel; (4) the availability and cost of electricity and natural gas, which could negatively affect our cost of steel production or result in a delay or cancellation of existing or future drilling within our natural gas drilling programs; (5) critical equipment failures and business interruptions; (6) market demand for steel products, which, in the case of many of our products, is driven by the level of nonresidential construction activity in the United States; (7) impairment in the recorded value of inventory, equity investments, fixed assets, goodwill or other long-lived assets; (8) uncertainties and volatility surrounding the global economy, including excess world capacity for steel production, inflation and interest rate changes; (9) fluctuations in currency conversion rates; (10) significant changes in laws or government regulations affecting environmental compliance, including legislation and regulations that result in greater regulation of greenhouse gas emissions that could increase our energy costs, capital expenditures and operating costs or cause one or more of our permits to be revoked or make it more difficult to obtain permit modifications; (11) the cyclical nature of the steel industry; (12) capital investments and their impact on our performance; (13) our safety performance; (14) our ability to integrate businesses we acquire; and (15) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, any variants of the virus, and any other similar pandemic or public health situation. These and other factors are discussed in Nucor's regulatory filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including those in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" of Nucor's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release speak only as of this date, and Nucor does not assume any obligation to update them, except as may be required by applicable law.

SOURCE Nucor Corporation