Steven Allen Adams GOING UP – Construction continues on 1,700 acres of the Nucor electric arc furnace facility near Apple Grove.

APPLE GROVE — It’s been a little more than a year since Nucor broke ground in Mason County on what will be one of the largest steelmaking facilities in the western hemisphere, and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin was there Friday to see the facility’s progress.

Manchin, IW.Va., who is wrapping up more than two months into his third and final term as senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia, IW.Va., received a tour of the Nucor construction site Friday morning from facility officials and workers. Manchin spoke to the press before the tour, with factory construction continuing in the background.

“This will be state-of-the-art. It will be the cleanest steelmaking plant in the world,” Manchin said. “We have forever been the energy juggernaut, and now we are showing it. We are proud in West Virginia… we mined the coal that makes the steel that builds guns, ships, and factories. And now suddenly you can see everything the steel has done and what all of you have done.”

Manchin was joined by Nucor president and CEO Leon Topalian, Nucor Steel West Virginia vice president and general manager Johnny Jacobs, and Mason County Development Authority general manager John Musgrave. Nucor officials later presented Manchin with the “Man of Steel” award for his support of the facility.

“Senator Manchin, your support, your passion for West Virginia, and your help bringing Nucor here has made an impact in the lives of the thousands of team members who built it and for decades to come,” Topalian said. “Thank you for your support. “We couldn’t be happier to be in Apple Grove, West Virginia, and a part of this community once again.”

North Carolina-based Nucor first announced plans to purchase land for an electric arc furnace steel mill near Apple Grove in Mason County in 2022. The company broke ground on the Apple Grove facility on October 20, 2023.

The project represents a $3.1 billion investment in the state by Nucor, which will take recycled scrap metal and produce steel products on 1,700 acres. When completed, the facility will have a capacity of 3 million tons of sheet metal.

The facility employs more than 240 Nucor employees, approximately 900 construction workers, and up to 2,000 construction jobs are expected, according to facility officials. The facility will be opened in phases and the first phase is expected to be operational by the end of 2026. When the facility is completed and becomes operational in 2027, the facility could employ as many as 800 full-time employees.

“We’re probably two years from the start… We’re roughly a third of the way there,” Topalian said. “I have seen some of the first pieces of equipment installed in the last few weeks and these will continue to increase as we move forward… It will be 2027 when we are fully up to speed and starting to produce some of the most advanced equipment. Cutting-edge products for our end-user customers, from automotive to construction, from data centers to all industrial applications. “We couldn’t be more excited about this plan and what it will bring into the future.”

Nucor officials and local economic development officials also look forward to the downstream impact the Nucor facility will have on the region; Nucor dealers are likely buying property nearby to be closer to Nucor’s Mason County facility and other industries that could benefit.

“This will have a big impact. “There’s no doubt about it,” Musgrave said. “It’s going to be great, with all the fallout from all of this. That’s why other people are calling. We get questions every day in our office about whether there’s real estate, what opportunities there are. This is a tremendous company. Nucor has been a great neighbor from the beginning.”

Nucor benefits from many tax breaks and incentives in the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act of 2021 negotiated by both Manchin and U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. — and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which Manchin helped negotiate. Manchin said the goal of both bills is to promote American manufacturing.

“The most important thing we’re trying to do is (say) the building blocks of America should not be trusted from untrustworthy parts of the world,” Manchin said. “The things we depend on every day for the economy and defense of our country were in areas we couldn’t trust.”

“You have to have building blocks made in America, made in America. And (the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act) brought that back,” Manchin continued. “There’s no more historic building blocks other than steel. You’ve got to have it. But we do it right here, in the heart of coal country and also where steel production is.” “It’s incredible to get it now with new technologies in the heart of West Virginia.”

(Adams can be reached at [email protected])