Long Products
Nucor scraps plans for new rebar micro mill in Pacific Northwest
Written by Laura Miller
October 28, 2025
Nucor has pulled the plug on a planned rebar micro mill in the Pacific Northwest.
Early last year, Nucor’s board of directors had approved a $860-million plan to construct a 650,000-short-ton-per-year micro mill in the region.
However, management revealed on Tuesday’s third-quarter earnings conference call that the company has abandoned those plans.
“We’ve recently decided to no longer pursue a new rebar micro mill project in the Pacific Northwest region,” President and CEO Leon Topalian stated on the call.
The decision reflects a shift toward optimizing current assets rather than expanding capacity, according to the chief executive.
“With the recent investments we’ve made in the bar group, we can serve the western US and Canadian markets from our current footprint with superior cost and supply chain advantages,” he explained.
The company will continue to monitor market developments and deploy capital where it sees the best returns, he added.
Busy bar group
Nucor’s bar group has been busy, setting records for quarterly rebar shipments in the first and third quarters of this year, management said.
Total bar shipments in Q3’25 reached 1,515,000 st, up 8% from the same quarter last year. Bar shipments of 4,724,000 st in the first three quarters of this year were 13% ahead of the same period in 2024.
The company commissioned and began ramping up production at two new bar facilities in the third quarter: a $100 million, 600,000-stpy melt shop in Kingman, Ariz., and a $350 million, 430,000-stpy rebar micro mill in Lexington, N.C.
Topalian expects both projects to be EBITDA-positive by Q1’26.
“The momentum across our bar products remains very strong,” commented Randy Spicer, executive vice president of bar and engineered bar products. “We’re seeing robust, robust order entry across all regions and key end markets … driven by infrastructure projects, chip plants, warehouses, and data centers.”
He also noted Nucor has “implemented and realized meaningful price increases in merchant bar throughout 2025, supported by our multi-year high backlogs and extended lead times.”
