Nucor Steel West Virginia — Apple Grove Sheet Mill

Nucor’s new sheet mill in Apple Grove, West Virginia is closing in on the finish line. As of late spring 2026 the Mason County plant was roughly 85% complete, with testing on its electric arc furnaces and hot mill due to wrap by year’s end and commercial shipments scheduled for early 2027.

Project Scope

The plant will turn scrap into up to 3 million tons of sheet steel a year using electric arc furnaces, the lower-emissions route that has displaced blast furnaces across much of the US industry. The budget has climbed from an initial $2.7 billion to about $4 billion as scope grew and material costs rose. Nucor expects to employ roughly 800 full-time workers, with average pay in the $80,000 to $90,000 range. A separate $23 million federal grant is funding an all-weather barge dock at the site.

Why It Matters

The mill lands in a stretch of the Ohio Valley that lost manufacturing for a generation, and 800 permanent jobs at those wages reset the local economy. It also feeds the automakers and appliance builders reshoring supply chains, who want domestic sheet with a smaller carbon footprint. Electric arc capacity like this is how the US steel industry is quietly rebuilding itself, one scrap-fed mill at a time.

Project Team & Details