If Ozinga's new East Chicago mill runs entirely on slag from one financially strained steel plant, how dependent are our own regional material contracts on that single source?

Cleveland-Cliffs lost $229 million in the first quarter of 2026 and has a blast furnace relining scheduled for 2027 at Burns Harbor, the same plant supplying all the slag for Ozinga's million-ton cement mill. Any facility sourcing concrete or cement regionally should ask its supplier how a Burns Harbor outage would affect delivery before signing a long-term contract.

With ITAMCO chasing a Notre Dame partnership and Electric Plus building out prefab and training capacity in Plainfield, is Indiana's supplier base actually ready for larger utility and data center work?

Not yet on either front. Inside Indiana Business confirms no formal Notre Dame agreement exists for ITAMCO's Plymouth district, and Notre Dame's attention is tied up in the $130-135 million Colfax Corner project through at least 2028. Electric Plus is still six months from moving into its new Plainfield headquarters, so the capacity both projects are building toward will not show up until 2027 or 2028.

Does a safety audit that relies on a contractor's own incident numbers actually tell us anything?

Not always. SunCoke Energy's 2025 safety scorecard ties 10 percent of executive incentive pay to a Total Recordable Incident Rate of 0.55, but that number explicitly excludes Phoenix Services, the subsidiary whose employee was killed at Burns Harbor in August. Any facility using outside contractors for hazardous material handling should ask whether the contractor's safety metrics include or exclude the specific crew doing the work.

Manufacturing News TEG Daily

October 16, 2026 · Montgomery · Marshall · Lake · Hendricks · Porter

Nucor's $105M Crawfordsville Expansion, Ozinga's East Chicago Cement Mill, and a Fatal Accident at Burns Harbor: What Indiana Manufacturers Need to Know

Nucor's Crawfordsville expansion, Ozinga's East Chicago cement mill, and a fatal Burns Harbor accident: what Indiana manufacturers need to track this week.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Nucor is pouring another $105 million into a Crawfordsville expansion of its Towers & Structures plant, Ozinga just started up a million-ton cement mill in East Chicago that runs entirely on Cleveland-Cliffs' slag, and a 28-year-old contractor is dead after an accident at Cleveland-Cliffs' Burns Harbor Works, three events that land specific cost, safety, and workforce consequences on Indiana manufacturers this week. Two more developments, ITAMCO's push for an innovation district in Plymouth and Electric Plus's $38.6 million headquarters purchase in Plainfield, add supplier-capacity questions Montgomery, Lake, Porter, Marshall, and Hendricks County operators should be tracking now.

01Montgomery

Nucor Adds $105 Million to Crawfordsville Expansion

Nucor Corporation announced on October 8 that it will invest another $105 million in its Towers & Structures plant in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, adding more than 125,000 square feet to a facility that only started production in 2025. The project still needs regulatory approval and a final incentive package from Montgomery County, with groundbreaking targeted for the first quarter of 2027 and up to 100 new jobs paying an average of $87,500 a year starting in mid-2027.

For the huddle: If utility pole buyers rarely switch suppliers once qualified, are we positioned (as a potential customer or regional supplier) to lock in contracts before this capacity race closes the field for the next decade?

SourcesNucor to Expand Utility Towers & Structures Facility in Indiana (buildingindiana.com)

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02Marshall

ITAMCO Pitches an Innovation District for Plymouth

Indiana Tool & Manufacturing Co., led by President Gary Neidig, has formed the Indiana Innovation Center and is asking Plymouth to annex and rezone its property as the first step toward an adjacent innovation district built around advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and tech commercialization. The pitch names the University of Notre Dame and South Bend's Colfax Corner as intended partners, with Mayor Robert Listenberger and Council President Don Ecker backing the annexation.

For the huddle: Given that no formal Notre Dame partnership exists yet and Colfax Corner will consume the university's attention through 2028, what's our realistic timeline if we're counting on this district for supplier or talent connections?

SourcesIndiana Tool & Manufacturing Co. proposes innovation district in Plymouth (giant.fm)

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03Lake

Ozinga Opens Million-Ton Slag Cement Mill in East Chicago

Ozinga held a ribbon cutting October 13 for its new slag cement mill in East Chicago, Lake County, billed as the largest of its kind in North America at one million tons of annual capacity. The plant runs on granulated blast furnace slag processed at Ozinga's Burns Harbor operation inside the Cleveland-Cliffs steelworks, uses a Gebr.

For the huddle: If we're sourcing concrete or cement locally, do our contracts account for the risk that Ozinga's entire feedstock runs through one aging, financially pressured steel mill next door?

SourcesOzinga opens East Chicago cement facility (nwindianabusiness.com)

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04Hendricks

Electric Plus Buys $38.6 Million Plainfield Headquarters

Avon-based electrical contractor Electric Plus closed October 1 on a $38.6 million purchase of a 500,192-square-foot building at 501 Airtech Parkway in Plainfield, Hendricks County, buying from Canadian REIT Granite REIT at $77.17 a square foot. The company, which grew from 3 employees in 2006 to more than 950 today, will occupy about 235,000 square feet for office, prefabrication, and workforce training space, lease out the remaining roughly 265,000 square feet, and move in spring 2027 after the Plainfield Redevelopment Commission approved a five-year vacant-building tax deduction tied to a projected 90 new jobs paying around $45 an hour.

For the huddle: As electrical contractors like Electric Plus build dedicated prefab and training capacity to chase data-center work, are we locking up the licensed electrical labor we'll need before that capacity gets absorbed by bigger players?

SourcesElectric Plus Acquires 500,192 SF Industrial Facility Near Indianapolis for $38.6M (rebusinessonline.com)

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05Porter

Contractor Killed Operating Pot Hauler at Burns Harbor

A 28-year-old Merrillville man, Jonathan L. Stepp, who had six children, died on the night of August 13 while operating a pot hauler at Cleveland-Cliffs' Burns Harbor Works in Porter County. Stepp worked for Phoenix Services, the slag-handling contractor Cleveland-Cliffs uses at the plant, which SunCoke Energy acquired for $325 million in 2025.

For the huddle: When we use outside contractors for hazardous material handling, do our safety audits actually capture the contractor's real incident history, or does that risk disappear from the numbers the way it did in SunCoke's own scorecard?

SourcesA 28-Year-Old Father of Six Died in a Steel Plant Accident, and His Family Is Now Facing Life Without Him (aol.com)

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