Groundbreaking at Nucor Steel West Virginia for one of the most modern and environmentally friendly sheet mills
- Produce steel by using recycled materials
- Groundbreaking is in the Guinness Book of World Records
- SMS group is an important partner in minimizing emissions
- Production of some of the most technologically advanced steel sheet while having one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world
Nucor Corporation had a “record breaking” groundbreaking event at its 1,700-acre Apple Grove site in West Virginia. The state-of-the-art sheet mill represents the largest manufacturing investment in West Virginia history. The mill will create more than 800 permanent manufacturing jobs for the area and several hundred additional jobs related to services needed to support the mill, including maintenance, utilities and transportation.
“With our circular production method, Nucor Steel West Virginia will produce sustainable sheet steel with some of the lowest embodied carbon in the world. We are excited that the advanced capabilities of this mill will expand our ability to provide our customers with the cleanest and highest-quality steel products,” said Leon Topalian, Chair, President and CEO Nucor Corporation.
SMS is an important partner in minimizing emissions from this new facility, as they will supply the equipment for the steelmaking plant. The equipment consists of two – 210 short ton DC Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF), two – Twin Ladle Metallurgy Furnaces (LMF), two – Vacuum Tank Degassers with Oxygen Blowing (VTD-OB) and seven transfer cars. The first heat at the EAF is currently planned for Q1 2026.
Several distinguished speakers and guests from Nucor, as well as government, shared the stage and their vision and views on the new mill and what it means for economic development in West Virginia and for manufacturing in the United States.
As part of the groundbreaking ceremony, the Nucor team organized the Guinness Book of World Records to witness the longest ever shovel relay. More than 545 dedicated participants lined up to successfully complete the 1 km relay and set a new record. SMS was proud to be part of this “record-breaking” groundbreaking ceremony and to support our valued customer Nucor.
Nucor Steel Brandenburg celebrates inauguration of new facility with one of world’s largest and most advanced continuous casting plants
- Sustainably produced steel for the US energy sector
- Nucor and SMS group, close partners for over 35 years
- As a lifecycle partner, SMS operates a repair service center at the Brandenburg site
Nucor Steel Brandenburg has celebrated the inauguration of the new greenfield facility at the Buttermilk Falls Industrial Park site located on the Ohio River in Brandenburg, Kentucky. The core unit of the works is the single-strand continuous caster supplied by SMS for ultra-wide and ultra-thick slabs. It is one of the world’s largest and most advanced continuous casting plants, which is capable of producing 1.45 million tons of slabs per year in widths of up to 3.15 meters and thicknesses of 200 millimeters, 250 millimeters and 300 millimeters. With this new plant, Nucor plans to supply steel products, sustainably manufactured, for renewable energy projects. One of the most important products manufactured at this facility is Nucor’s ElcyonTM, a heavy plate product made from recycled materials, which was specially developed for the offshore wind industry and provides a domestic sustainable steel supply chain that is in great demand by the US energy sector.
SMS supplied the following key equipment for this facility: A single-strand continuous caster for ultra-wide and ultra-thick slabs, walking beam and bogie hearth furnaces, a continuous heat treatment line and heavy-plate treatment section, as well as the water treatment system. The SMS group reheating furnace was equipped with the particularly low-NOx, flameless and versatile SMS ZEROFlame burners, the stage 1 automation system, X-Pact® DigiMod Control, and the stage 2 heating optimization system, X-Pact® Prometheus. X-Pact® DigiMod Control combines the modulating control of the burner control zones with the digital control of each burner, in order to ensure the correct flame pattern and thermal profile of the furnace in all operating conditions. The X-Pact® Prometheus system enables the desired temperature profile and uniformity to be achieved for any material and steel grade, with minimum fuel consumption, decarburization and scale loss.
As a lifecycle partner, SMS has set up a repair service center at the Nucor Brandenburg site and offers repair services for continuous casting molds and containment segments as part of a long-term service agreement. In addition to the HD LASr used for caster equipment alignment in the workshop, an HD scan unit is also installed in the Brandenburg service center, which SMS can use to analyze the internal microstructure and quality of the slabs for the continuous caster in Brandenburg and for other customers. SMS group has built up a strong team of 22 employees who are able to provide mechanical and electrical maintenance services for all areas of the Brandenburg plant for many years to come.
