Manufacturing News
October 6, 2026
October 6, 2026 · DeKalb County · Story 2 of 3
Nucor Vulcraft Adds a Steel Grating Line in St. Joe, DeKalb County
Nucor is putting $59 million into its Vulcraft site in St. Joe this quarter, with groundbreaking planned for a new steel grating line and 20 new jobs. St. Joe becomes only the second Vulcraft site in North America to make grating, which puts pressure on grating specialists like Canam Group and Coastal Metals. It also lets Nucor bundle grating with the joists and deck it already makes in St. Joe, going after the same data center bids as Steel Dynamics' New Millennium Building Systems, 30 miles away in Fort Wayne.
That bet only pays off if the data center projects behind it get built. Those buildouts slip and get canceled on their own schedule, not Nucor's. Watch whether Nucor confirms wages above 150 percent of DeKalb County's average. If it does, every employer in that county will be competing against that number for skilled hires.
For your morning huddle
- Q
What does the Nucor Vulcraft expansion in St. Joe mean for DeKalb County hiring?
Nucor's $59 million investment adds a steel grating line and 20 new jobs, and if Nucor pays above 150 percent of the county's average wage, every other employer in DeKalb County will be competing against that rate for skilled hires.
Briefing note
Nucor is investing $59 million to expand its Vulcraft Indiana facility in St. Joe, adding 20 new jobs and a steel grating production line, making it only the second Vulcraft plant in North America able to make grating, alongside its existing joist and decking capacity of 1.2 million tons a year. This is Nucor's fourth major Indiana investment since 2021, following $290 million at Crawfordsville, $115 million for a utility infrastructure plant, and $28.5 million for an insulated metal panel plant in Waterloo, bringing its cumulative Indiana spend past $433 million and its statewide headcount above 2,600.
- Impact
- The grating line is a direct shot at Steel Dynamics' New Millennium Building Systems, headquartered 30 miles away in Fort Wayne and currently the #2 player in U.S. joists and decking, Nucor is now competing on its rival's home turf while also squeezing grating specialists like Canam Group and Coastal Metals. The timing lines up with the data center construction boom (non-residential starts up 26% year-over-year, with Amazon's $15 billion New Carlisle campus nearby) and groundbreaking is slated for Q4 2026, putting new capacity online right as that demand curve peaks in 2028.
- Watch
- The Q4 2026 groundbreaking date and whether Nucor confirms wages above 150% of DeKalb County's average, a benchmark that will ripple through local hiring.
From the brief, October 6, 2026
- Dalton Foundry's Warsaw, Indiana Reopening Clears the Council, Customer Decision Still Open
- Nucor Vulcraft Adds a Steel Grating Line in St. Joe, DeKalb County
- Indiana's Cheapest Gas in the Country Sits on a Tax Holiday That Could End
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