Steel Summit: Nucor fires up West Virginia EAF as sheet mill ramp approaches

Nucor Corp. has begun commissioning the melt shop at its new, $4 billion sheet mill in West Virginia, with the first arc struck on the new electric-arc furnace, according to Noah Hanners, the company’s executive vice president of sheet products. The pickle line is producing, the electric-arc furnace has been fired up, and steel production is expected soon.

“We struck an arc in the furnace,” Hanners revealed in a fireside chat Monday at the SMU Steel Summit 2026 in Atlanta. He said Nucor would continue commissioning equipment further downstream, including the hot and cold mills. The company plans to complete the mill’s commissioning by year’s end.

Nucor still expects to begin the initial ramp-up phase in early 2027. Hanners expressed confidence in the “aggressive” ramp curve, which sees the mill reaching 50% utilization by the end of 2027, with steady ramp-up through 2028.

The company plans to shift internal orders from other Nucor mills to West Virginia so the mill can process substantial volume while the equipment and workforce build operating experience. “It’s going to be largely running to practice to get volume through the mill,” Hanners said, before progressing to customer qualifications and higher-quality products.

The mill is expected to serve automotive customers in the Southeast and Midwest. Hanners said Nucor expects West Virginia to produce about 1 million tons of automotive steel annually.

Direct-reduced iron supplied from Nucor’s Louisiana and Trinidad operations will form a significant part of the mill’s metallics mix, Hanners said. The two facilities have a combined annual capacity of 4 million tons of DRI. The broader metallics mix discussed included DRI, pig iron, busheling, and upgraded shredded scrap.

When asked if Nucor was considering building any more sheet mills, Hanners said the company’s near-term capital and operating focus is to get West Virginia into the market, rather than building another greenfield steel mill at this time.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held various editorial positions with steel industry publications, associations, and mills since 2007. She joined the SMU team in 2022. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.