Nucor Corporation announced that California Steel Industries, Inc. (CSI) will build a continuous galvanizing line at its mill in Fontana, California. The new galvanizing line will serve construction end markets in the western United States and is expected to have an annual capacity of 400,000 tons. With the addition of this new line, CSI will have a total hot dip galvanizing capacity of 1.2 million tons per year. The investment is expected to cost approximately $370 million and take 30 months to construct following regulatory approvals.
“With recent closures of galvanizing capacity in the western region, CSI is seizing an opportunity to provide the high-quality value-added products that our customers have requested,” said Leon Topalian, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nucor Corporation. “This investment continues the strong partnership we have cultivated with JFE Steel of growing together in North America.”
CSI is a flat-rolled steel converter with the capability to produce more than 2 million tons of finished steel and steel products annually. The company has five product lines including hot rolled, pickled and oiled, cold rolled, galvanized, and ERW pipe. Key end-use markets served by CSI include the construction, service center, and energy markets. CSI employs more than 800 full-time and temporary teammates. CSI is the second partnership between Nucor and JFE Steel of Japan, following the formation of Nucor JFE Steel Mexico, which completed construction in 2020 and is in qualification trials with the burgeoning regional automotive market. Nucor acquired a 51% stake in CSI earlier this year.
In addition to its majority ownership of CSI, Nucor currently operates five strategically located sheet mills that utilize thin slab casters to produce flat-rolled steel for automotive, appliance, construction, pipe and tube, and many other industrial and consumer applications. The company also has a sixth wholly owned sheet mill under construction in West Virginia. The capacity of Nucor’s sheet mills is currently estimated at 14 million tons per year and, inclusive of this investment and the planned additions in West Virginia and South Carolina, Nucor will grow to 6.4 million tons of galvanizing capacity in the United States. All of Nucor’s sheet mills are equipped with galvanizing lines and five of them are equipped with cold rolling mills for the further processing of hot-rolled sheet steel.
