Steel Startup Considers North Carolina for Major Factory as Nucor Snaps up Land

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): U.S. Forged Rings, a new company that plans to make steel piping and components for industrial customers, has short-listed properties in North Carolina for a project that could create hundreds of high-paying jobs in the state. It could be part of a much bigger industrial expansion in eastern North Carolina.

USFR announced plans early last year to invest $700 million in East Coast production facilities, including a fabrication and forging plants to serve customers in wind energy, nuclear energy, construction, shipping, mining and other heavy industries. The company also is gearing up to make components for oil-and-gas applications and tubular products for the defense and aerospace sectors. 

Those plans have since grown, USFR President Giacomo Sozzi told WRAL in an interview, and the company is evaluating properties in North Carolina. Sozzi declined to say where in the state specifically the company is targeting, and he noted that the search hasn’t stopped at the North Carolina line. “There's also sites that are available that are actually more advanced and developed in other states,” Sozzi said. “But we like all the various factors put together that North Carolina provides.”

An unidentified steel manufacturer that fits the description of USFR has been eyeing property in Hertford County for a facility that could bring an investment in the ballpark of nearly $1 billion, people familiar with the project confirmed to WRAL. The project is expected to create at least 800 jobs.

USFR has been evaluating sites with access to waterways, rail and utilities — the kinds of qualities that make it easier to move large industrial components. The company is also weighing real estate costs and the availability of skilled labor as it makes its decision.

A Hertford plant would make sense for USFR or other steel manufacturers. The company has a supply chain partnership with Charlotte-based steel producer Nucor, which has a plant near the Hertford town of Cofield. The Nucor plant is off the Chowan River, which flows into the Albemarle Sound, part of the Intercoastal Waterway. And the North Carolina & Virginia Railroad runs through Cofield, with a leg to the existing Nucor plant.

Nucor itself is also poised for growth in the county — and beyond. Nucor has acquired hundreds of acres in Hertford County this year, property records show. A Nucor representative didn’t immediately respond to a WRAL request for more information about its plans in the county. The company, which is the biggest U.S. steel producer, plans to make about $3 billion in capital expenditures across the country this year as it seeks to meet domestic steel demand, Nucor executives said on a recent quarterly earnings call.

Being close to Nucor could also help USFR achieve its goal of making products entirely in the U.S. — a strategy that seeks to help customers sidestep supply chain delays or changes in foreign trade policies. Sozzi said the U.S. needs a more reliable supply of fabricated steel products, particularly as the country seeks to build up more power infrastructure to serve demand from data centers and other new technologies.

USFR plans to have a piping facility online by the end of 2027, a large fabrications facility by late 2028 and a forging and ring-rolling facility operating by the end of 2029, Sozzi said. The company hasn’t decided whether to build the facilities in one place or spread them out throughout the country, he said.

Sozzi declined to say whether USFR was in discussions with state Department of Commerce officials about economic incentives.

A spokesperson for the department also declined to confirm whether the company was seeking an incentives package. “We talk to many companies in the course of their site searches across the country,” Commerce spokesman David Rhoades said. “But until the company makes a public declaration of their choice, we don't discuss those conversations.”

Courtesy: www.wral.com