A worker approaches the electric-arc furnace, which uses three giant
electrodes to melt scrap into molten steel. Nucor's workers are among the
highest-paid in the industry, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014.Ryan Lowry for TIME
Cheap natural gas is giving manufacturer Nucor a shot at reversing the long decline in American steelmaking
On the day after christmas 2013, John Ferriola received a FedEx package containing a dozen metal pellets, each about the size of a blueberry and the color of charcoal. They had been refined with natural gas at a temperature one fifth that of the surface of the sun. To most, the contents of the box would have looked like a heap of rubbish. To Ferriola, CEO of Nucor Corp., the tiny pellets represent a huge bet for the biggest steelmaker left in the U.S.
The technology may also help rekindle American steel manufacturing. Nearly a third of U.S. steelmaking jobs have disappeared over the past 15 years as the industry has boomed in China and other emerging economies. The lone …
Nucor's Crawfordsville, Ind. steel mill. In this facility, scrap metal—old automobiles, appliances and construction parts—is melted, cast into slabs, and eventually rolled into large toilet paper-shaped coils of finished steel. The steel will soon be made into anything from industrial oil pipes to cars to buildings, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMESparks shower out of steelmaking equipment, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEA Nucor steelworker monitors the furnace from inside a control room in the mill's melt shop, where scrap is liquified, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMENucor melts scrap at close to 3,000 degrees
Fahrenheit in furnaces like this one, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEA worker watches over operations in the mill, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMESteel slabs are prepared in this chamber before they are thinned into long sheets, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMERussell Barker works the control room of the mill's melt shop, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEMasks protect workers from the intense heat of the furnace, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMESteel is lifted into the air for processing, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMESlag, or molten runoff, is disposed of in
the melt shop, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEA worker approaches the electric-arc furnace, which uses three giant
electrodes to melt scrap into molten steel. Nucor's workers are among the
highest-paid in the industry, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEAn open ladle with over 100 tons of molten steel is lifted in the center of the mill, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEWhen there's a mechanical failure at the mill, it's all hands on deck, says 45-year-old Alan Fagan, pictured here. "When you lose containment" in the ladle carrying molten steel, "the shell pops open and it squirts steel everywhere," Fagan says. "Everyone dives in and helps each other," Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEIn the rolling mill, two-inch thick, red-hot slabs of steel are rapidly pounded into sheets thinner than cardboard, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMERolling mill technician Mike Hutchinson oversees the steel's thinning process. "Our machines got ump," he says, Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIMEAmerican flags are found throughout Nucor's mills. "The American worker will outcompete anyone in the world," says CEO John Ferriola. "That’s why we’re an American company," Crawfordsville, Ind. on Aug. 25, 2014. Ryan Lowry for TIME
