Construction continues on the 1,700-acre site of a Nucor electric arc furnace facility near Apple Grove. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

APPLE GROVE — It’s been just over a year since Nucor broke ground in Mason County in what will be one of the largest steel-making plants in the western hemisphere, and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin was on hand Friday to see the plant’s progress.

Manchin, I-W.Va., who is finishing up the more than two months left on his third and final term as West Virginia’s senior U.S. Senator, was given a tour of the Nucor construction site Friday morning by plant officials and workers. Manchin talked with press prior to his tour with plant construction going on in the background.

“This will be state-of-the-art. It’ll be the cleanest steel-making plant in the world,” said Manchin. “We’ve been an energy juggernaut forever, and now we’re showing it. In West Virginia, we’re proud…we’ve mined the coal that made the steel that built the guns and ships and the factories. And now all of a sudden you can see everything that steel does and what you all have done.”

Joining Manchin was Leon Topalian, president and CEO of Nucor, Johnny Jacobs, Nucor Steel West Virginia vice president and general manager, and John Musgrave, executive director of the Mason County Development Authority. Nucor officials later gave Manchin a “Man of Steel” award for his support of the plant.

“Senator Manchin, your support, your passion for West Virginia, and for helping to bring Nucor here has made an impact in the lives of thousands of team members that are here building it, and again, for decades to come,” Topalian said. “Thank you for your support. Again, we couldn’t be more pleased to be in West Virginia, in Apple Grove, and part of this community.”

Pictured from left are Johnny Jacobs, Nucor Steel West Virginia vice president and general manager, John Musgrave, executive director of the Mason County Development Authority, Leon Topalian, president and CEO of Nucor, and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin standing in front of the ongoing construction at the Nucor steel-making plant in Mason County. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

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

The project represents a $3.1 billion investment in the state by Nucor, which will take recycled scrap metal and create steel products at the 1,700-acre site. When complete, the plant will have a 3-million-ton sheet capacity

According to plant officials, more than 240 Nucor employees are on site, with around 900 construction workers, with up to 2,000 construction jobs expected. The plant will open up in phases, with the first phase expected to go online at the end of 2026. By the time the facility is complete and ramps up in 2027, the plant could have as many as 800 full-time employees.

“We’re probably two years from start-up…We’re roughly a third of the way through,” Topalian said. “I got to see some of the first pieces of equipment being set in the last couple weeks and that’ll continue to ramp up as we move forward…It’ll be 2027 as we ramp up fully and begin producing some of the most state-of-the-art products for our end-use customers, from automotive to construction, data centers, and all the industrial applications. We couldn’t be more thrilled about this plan and what it’s going to bring for the future.”

Nucor officials and local economic development officials are also looking forward to the downstream effect the Nucor plant will have on the region, with Nucor vendors possibly buying property nearby to be closer to Nucor’s Mason County facility, and other industries that could benefit.

“It’ll have a major impact. There’s no question,” Musgrave said. “With the spinoffs of all of that, it’s going to be fantastic. Other people are looking because of this. We get questions every day at our office about is there property available, what opportunities are there? This is a tremendous company. Nucor’s been a great neighbor from the beginning.”

Nucor is benefiting from several of the tax breaks and incentives in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – negotiated by both Manchin and U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. – and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which Manchin helped negotiate. Manchin said the goal of both bills was to incentivize American manufacturing.

“The main thing that we’ve tried to do is (say) the building blocks for America should not be relied upon from unreliable areas of the world,” Manchin said. “The things that we need and we count on every day for the economy and for the defense of our country were in areas that we couldn’t depend on.”

“You have to have the building blocks in America, made in America. And (the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act) is what brought that back,” Manchin continued. “There’s not more of a historical building block than steel. You’ve got to have it. But to have that right here in West Virginia – the heart of the coal country and the heart of steel-making at one time – now with the new technologies. It’s unbelievable.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com