October 1, 2026 · DeKalb · Bartholomew · Dearborn · Monroe · Kosciusko · Marion · AES INDIANA · DUKE INDIANA

Nucor's $59M St. Joe Steel Grating Expansion Signals a Defensive Play in DeKalb County

Nucor's $59M St. Joe steel grating expansion in DeKalb County, Duke Energy's new Site Readiness picks, and the AES Indiana ownership fight at FERC.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Nucor is putting $59 million into a new 127,000-square-foot steel grating facility at Vulcraft Indiana in St. Joe, DeKalb County, and groundbreaking is set for the fourth quarter. The move adds a higher-spec product line next to the plant's existing joist and deck operations, and the 20 new jobs will pay more than 150% of the DeKalb County average wage.

Two other developments are worth your attention today. Duke Energy Indiana added three properties to its 2026 Site Readiness Program. And a federal fight over who owns one of Indiana's largest utilities just picked up two more members of Congress.

Nucor Vulcraft Steel Grating Expansion Points to Margin Pressure, Not New Demand

Nucor announced the St. Joe project in August. Nucor's own filings show margin pressure in its steel products segment, including $21 million in closure charges late last year. A competitor, AMICO, announced its own grating expansion worth more than $50 million in 2025. Read together, St. Joe looks like a defensive step into a higher-spec product rather than a response to new market demand. Nucor's September 17 guidance did show prices rising, but that guidance covered its steel mills segment. Joist and deck were not part of it.

Twenty jobs will not reset pay across DeKalb County on their own. But Nucor already employs more than 300 people in St. Joe, and jobs paying above 150% of the county average widen the gap for any employer competing for the same technician candidates through 2027.

Duke Energy Indiana Adds Three Sites, One Already Has a Likely Tenant

Duke Energy Indiana added three properties to its 2026 Site Readiness Program: up to 68 acres in Taylorsville, Bartholomew County; the I-74 Alig Site in St. Leon, Dearborn County; and 87 acres of I-69 frontage in Bloomington, Monroe County. Duke says the program has now prepared 53 properties and landed 32 projects worth close to $15 billion.

The Taylorsville site sits next to Irresistible Foods Group's Grillo's Pickles and King's Hawaiian plants, and IFG says it is building in phases. That makes IFG itself the more likely first tenant on that parcel, not a new employer entering the market. Heavy trucks also can't reach the site easily until READI-funded road work at US-31 and Bear Lane and County Road 700 North is finished, work backed by a grant of up to $1 million. If you're weighing an expansion site, Taylorsville raises a fair question: is it smarter to build next to an anchor tenant's existing infrastructure than to build standalone.

AES Indiana Ownership Fight Reaches FERC With a Rate Case Still Pending

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Indiana Reps. André Carson and Victoria Spartz are now urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject the $33.4 billion BlackRock-led takeover of AES. Ohio regulators approved their portion of the deal on September 24, which leaves FERC as the major remaining approval. FERC does not set your electric rate, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission does. The open question is whether new owners carrying $33.4 billion in deal financing push harder for a higher rate in AES Indiana's next rate case. AES Indiana's $71 million rate increase is still under rehearing. If FERC approves the deal, watch for hold-harmless or rate-protection conditions attached to that approval.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: How much will Nucor's new St. Joe jobs pay in DeKalb County? A: Nucor says the 20 new positions will pay more than 150% of the DeKalb County average wage, widening the gap for any employer recruiting technicians against Nucor's existing 300-plus person workforce there.

Q: What does the BlackRock takeover of AES mean for AES Indiana's electric rates? A: FERC approval would not set your rate directly, the IURC does that, but a $33.4 billion debt load behind the new ownership raises the question of whether AES Indiana pushes harder for rate increases in its next case, which is relevant now because its $71 million rate increase is still under rehearing.

Q: Where are Duke Energy Indiana's new 2026 Site Readiness Program sites located? A: The three new sites are in Taylorsville in Bartholomew County, St. Leon in Dearborn County, and Bloomington in Monroe County, and the Taylorsville parcel sits next to IFG's existing Grillo's Pickles and King's Hawaiian plants.

If you're tracking the AES ownership question and what it could mean for your next rate case, our utility rate case intervention guide covers what it costs and when to act, and our earlier coverage of the AES Indiana BlackRock buyout and rate case has the background on the $71 million filing.

01DeKalb · St. Joe

Nucor's $59M Vulcraft Steel Grating Expansion in St. Joe

Nucor Corporation announced on August 13, 2026 that it will invest $59 million to expand its Vulcraft Indiana facility in St. Joe, constructing a new 127,000-square-foot building on its 250-acre site to add steel grating production alongside its existing joist and deck lines. The project, announced jointly with Gov. Mike Braun's office, will break ground in Q4 2026 and create 20 new full-time jobs by the end of 2027, on top of the 300+ teammates already at the site, with wages expected to exceed 150% of the DeKalb County average.

Impact: This isn't a pure growth story, Nucor's own Q2 2026 filings show its steel products segment (which includes Vulcraft) absorbed margin compression and $21 million in closure charges in Q4 2025 as joist and deck pricing softened, so grating is a higher-spec product line meant to offset commoditized-price pressure. It also lands squarely in a capacity race: competitor AMICO announced its own $50-million-plus grating expansion in 2025, and Nucor already controls an estimated 40% of domestic steel joist sales, so St. Joe is as much defensive portfolio diversification as it is new demand capture.
Watch: Nucor's Q4 2026 groundbreaking at the St. Joe site and whether Nucor's upcoming earnings calls show continued margin pressure in the steel products segment that would validate this as a defensive mix shift.
For the huddle: If a dominant player like Nucor is diversifying into higher-spec product lines to offset margin compression in its commodity business, where in our own product mix are we most exposed to the same price pressure a competitor could out-diversify us on?

02Bartholomew · Taylorsville

Duke Energy Markets Taylorsville Site Next to Grillo's, King's Hawaiian Cluster

Duke Energy Indiana selected the Taylorsville Industrial Park Site (three parcels totaling 21.5 to 68 acres near U.S. 31 and I-65, owned by Force Holdings LLC and Palladin LLC) as one of three properties in its 2026 Site Readiness Program, partnering with the Greater Columbus Economic Development Corp. to market it nationally. The site sits next to the recently opened $54 million Grillo's Pickles plant and the forthcoming $175 million King's Hawaiian bakery, both owned by Irresistible Foods Group (IFG).

Impact: IFG's own leadership has described building its 88-acre King's Hawaiian campus 'in phases,' raising a question The Republic's coverage never asks: is IFG itself (via sister brands like Killer Brownie Company or Innovation Bakers) the most likely tenant for these Duke-marketed parcels? If so, the national marketing push may be validating land already earmarked for a known occupant rather than genuinely competing for new-to-market employers, and the real gating item is a modest up-to-$1 million READI 2.0 grant for road work at US-31/Bear Lane and CR 700N.
Watch: Whether IFG or an outside food/CPG prospect is the first to announce on the Duke-marketed Taylorsville parcels, and completion of the READI 2.0-funded intersection and road extension that currently constrains heavy truck access.
For the huddle: Given how IFG is clustering multiple brands around one Bartholomew County campus, should we be looking harder at co-locating near an anchor tenant's existing infrastructure instead of building standalone?

03Bartholomew · Dearborn · Monroe · Taylorsville, St. Leon, Bloomington

Duke Energy's Three-County Site Readiness Picks: Bartholomew, Dearborn, Monroe

Duke Energy Indiana announced Sept. 29-30, 2026 that it added the Taylorsville Industrial Site (Bartholomew County), the I-74 St. Leon Alig Site at the I-74/State Road 1 interchange (Dearborn County), and an 87-acre I-69 frontage site at 3100 W. Fullerton Pike in Bloomington (Monroe County) to its 2026 Site Readiness Program. Since the program launched in 2013, Duke says it has prepared 53 properties, landing 32 major projects, more than 10,300 jobs, and nearly $15 billion in capital investment statewide, and $22 billion and 17,000 jobs over the last five years including this program.

Impact: Duke Energy Indiana's Site Readiness Program is a structural competitive moat against rival utilities: AES Indiana spent 'over $1 million' on economic development broadly in 2025 with no comparable structured site pipeline, and CenterPoint Energy in southwest Indiana has no published equivalent. That means counties inside Duke's 69-county, 23,000-square-mile territory get pre-vetted, nationally marketed shovel-ready sites before competing utility territories can even present an option to a site selector.
Watch: Whether AES Indiana or CenterPoint Energy announce a comparable site-readiness program in response, and any 2027 additions to Duke's prepared-site inventory.
For the huddle: Are we operating inside Duke Energy Indiana's service territory, and if not, are we losing deal flow to the counties that are?

04Kosciusko · Warsaw

Indiana, Ohio Named NSF 'Regional Innovation Engine' Manufacturing Award Winners

Northeast Ohio's NEO-SMART coalition, led by Case Western Reserve University with more than 70 partners, was named one of 12 National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines on July 14, 2026, positioning it to receive up to $160 million over a decade for materials research, AI, and manufacturing workforce training. The same NSF round named Indiana among the winners, alongside West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, with Indiana's engine centered on the Warsaw medtech corridor anchored by Zimmer Biomet and DePuy Synthes.

Impact: Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, not a science department, holds the co-PI role on Indiana's engine, an unusual NSF arrangement signaling the program is built around supply-chain commercialization, not just bench research. The timing lines up with Zimmer Biomet's September 2026 leadership restructuring, which named a new President of Robotics, Technology and Data ahead of a next-generation orthopedic robot launch expected in 2027, meaning this federal R&D pipeline could feed directly into a near-term commercial product.
Watch: NSF's milestone reviews that determine whether Indiana's and Ohio's engines move past the initial $7.5 million-per-year funding tranche toward the $15-20 million annual levels promised in years three through ten.
For the huddle: Given that this funding is milestone-gated and could shrink if commercialization targets are missed, how could we plug into the Warsaw medtech training pipeline now, while the money is flowing at full force, rather than waiting to see if NSF's benchmarks are hit?

05Marion · Indianapolis

UPDATE: Lawmakers Press FERC to Reject BlackRock-Led $33.4B AES Takeover

A bipartisan group of lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Indiana Reps. André Carson and Victoria Spartz sent a letter urging federal regulators to reject the $33.4 billion take-private acquisition of AES Corporation by BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT Infrastructure, with CalPERS and Qatar's QIA as co-investors. The push follows Ohio's PUCO approving its portion of the deal on September 24, 2026, leaving FERC (under Docket EC26-99) as the last major gatekeeper, with Public Citizen, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, and Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana all filing formal protests.

Impact: The legal fight centers on a 2010 FERC blanket authorization that let BlackRock acquire up to 20% of utility voting securities with minimal review: watchdogs argue it's being stretched to cover a full controlling takeover, and FERC Commissioner Mark Christie has already flagged that scrutiny is warranted when a company sits on 'both sides of the fence' as both passive utility shareholder and active controlling owner. That fight is unfolding while AES Indiana's own $71 million rate increase remains under rehearing after Gov. Braun replaced the IURC chairman over the vote, meaning Central Indiana's 530,000-plus AES Indiana customers face regulatory uncertainty from two directions at once.
Watch: FERC's ruling under Docket EC26-99, and specifically whether it orders a full evidentiary hearing rather than a straight approval or denial given the blanket-authorization conflict argument.
For the huddle: If this acquisition closes with BlackRock controlling both utility assets and data-center customers, how exposed are we to rate-base investment being redirected toward hyperscale load instead of industrial ratepayers like us?

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