According to Nucor, the mill will be set up to annually produce approximately 250,000 tons of hollow structural sections, mechanical steel tubing and galvanized solar torque tube. The mill will capitalize on investments Nucor has already made in Midwest facilities, including in a plate mill and a galvanizing line and in hot roll capacity expansion, Nucor said. 

"Adding a tube mill in the Midwest will allow us to leverage recent investments we have made and further strengthen our market leadership position as a low-cost producer of steel products," said Leon Topalian, Nucor president and chief executive officer.

“Building this tube mill puts us in a great position to serve the largest consuming regions of the U.S. for hollow structural section tubing and solar energy."

The mill will be a part of Nucor’s tubular products group, which was formed through the 2016 acquisitions of Southland Tube, Independence Tube Corp. and Republic Conduit. The group has an annual capacity of 1.365 million tons. 

Nucor didn’t identify any potential locations for the mill, but said it will be operational in two years.