Nucor Steel to begin accepting job applications soon
Steve Escobar, controller at the new Nucor Steel mill in Lexington, makes a presentation on job opportunities at the company’s town hall meeting at Davidson-Davie Community College Thursday night. {Vikki Broughton Hodges/Davidson Local}
About 100 people attended a town hall meeting at Davidson-Davie Community College’s Rittling Conference Center Thursday night to hear about job opportunities with Nucor Steel, Lexington’s newest manufacturing employer.
Nucor Steel announced in April 2022 it would build a $350 million steel rebar mill in Davidson County on 229 acres along the Highway 64 East corridor near the intersection with Interstate 85, just beyond the Elevated Wake Park and Hospice of Davidson County.
Roughly 500 temporary construction workers are currently building the steel mill.
The Charlotte-based company plans to hire approximately 180 entry-level production workers, as well as mechanics and electricians, and fill 20 to 25 administrative positions, said Steve Escobar, controller for the Lexington mill.
Nucor will begin posting job openings March 27 online at nucor.com/careers. Applicants will fill out a brief questionnaire and assessments will be made in April with interviews to follow in May. Escobar said the company will contact applicants by June or July with actual hiring to begin in August or September. New entry-level production workers will be expected to travel to other Nucor steel mills, likely in South Carolina and Florida, for training for several weeks or up to a month.
“People need to see an operating mill so they can understand their job,” Escobar noted.
The average annual compensation for Nucor employees is $99,600, Escobar said, noting that compensation is based on a pay-for-performance system tied to productivity.
Benefits include medical, vision, dental and disability insurance as well as a 401k plan, profit sharing, childcare support, parental leave, scholarships, tuition reimbursement of up to $4,000 annually for employees and $2,000 for a spouse, and a stock program with a 10 percent company match.
The mill will operate 24/7 on 12-hour rotating shifts, which includes nights, weekends and holidays. It will likely start with two crews and grow to four at full production.
Travis Greene, maintenance manager for the Lexington steel mill, said Nucor began with a single mill in Darlington, S.C., in 1962 and is at this time the largest steel and steel products producer in the United States, as well as the most sustainable, and the largest recycler of any material in North America. The company has a total of 30 facilities across the U.S. that produce steel products and process scrap metal to feed the mills.
Nucor, which posted sales of $41.5 billion in 2022, has 31,000 employees, who are referred to as “teammates.”
“Our team is the key to our success,” Greene said, adding that Nucor also has a strong safety record. “Our challenge is to become the world’s safest steel company.”
When asked about qualifications for production jobs, Greene advised the company looks not just for people with technical backgrounds but those who buy into the company’s core values — safety, integrity, trust, innovation, open communication, teamwork, inclusion, a can-do-attitude, a strong work ethic and ownership, or pride in the work.
“We want to ensure that you’re making the best product you can,” he added.
With a slide presentation, Greene pointed out the contrast in photos of coal-fired steel mills back in the 1930s through the 1950s and modern Nucor plants of today that use electric arc furnaces to melt down scrap metal and recycle it for new uses.
“We use the latest and greatest technology — this is not your grandparents’ steel company.” Greene offered that Nucor steel is used in blades to generate wind power, cars, heavy equipment and construction, including the giant I-beams used in iconic buildings such as the One World Trade Center in New York City.
Kaleb Fitch, melt shop manager in Lexington, explained that it takes about two hours to go from scrap metal to the rebar that will be made in Lexington.
In a question-and-answer segment of the meeting, an audience member asked about layoffs and plant closings, which have a long history in local textile and furniture manufacturing plants.
“We have a history of not laying people off and we’re proud of that,” Greene said.
Mike Hess, general manager of the Lexington mill and a 36-year veteran of Nucor, assured the audience that Nucor would not be laying off workers or closing the plant in the future.
“That first mill in Darlington, S.C., is still running today,” Hess said. “They have spent $1 billion since 1969 to keep it state of the art. Nucor doesn’t run assets into the ground — they continue to invest because their biggest returns are on existing assets.”
Escobar reported that when Nucor announced its new steel mill in April 2022, the company presented several gifts, including checks totaling $900,000 to a couple of local agencies but primarily to the county’s three school systems. “That was not just a publicity stunt. That’s an investment in our future. We want to keep the talent we have here for generations.”
