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Manufacturers of steel, rare earths, medical technology, defense and other sectors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to expand, renovate or build US facilities to improve domestic value chains and increase supply output.
Several are receiving state and federal funding as the Trump administration seeks to bolster U.S. manufacturing, citing national security and job creation opportunities.
Here are a number of openings and investments to start the month of September.
US steel
US Steel has resumed operations at its largest blast furnace after a $350 million renovation projectthe company said last week.
Located in Gary, Indiana, Blast Furnace 14 has the capacity to produce more than 2 million tons of hot metal per year. The project involved replacing the furnace’s refractory lining and restoring the systems to extend its operational life.
Employees and contractors from across the region worked on the cladding, with a workforce peaking at 1,000 people per day, US Steel said.
The outage lasted from February to September, Steel market update informed Crews also completed maintenance on supporting infrastructure such as furnace gas, cooling water, elevation and stove systems. US Steel began the cladding months after Japan-based Nippon Steel completed its acquisition of the company.
Technologies Array
Array, manufacturer of solar trackers and fixed tilt systems, celebrated the opening of a $50 million manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Wednesday.
The 216,000-square-foot facility expands the company’s domestic capacity and will support more than 300 jobs in production, assembly, design, engineering and customer service, according to a news release.
The facility is about three times the size of Array’s former Albuquerque site, allowing the company to bring component production in-house that was historically outsourced from other suppliers.
It will also support manufacturing roles such as stamping press operators, tool and die technicians and process engineers, according to the release. Components manufactured at the facility qualify for the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit under the Inflation Reduction Act.
US rare earths
USA Rare Earth on Wednesday started on the ground at rare earth metal and magnet manufacturing facility in Blacksburg, South Carolina, marking a step toward expanding its domestic supply chain.
The $1.2 billion investment is expected to create 490 jobs and increase U.S. production of raw materials used in the defense, aerospace, semiconductor and other manufacturing industries.
The 800,000-square-foot facility will be able to produce up to 6,400 metric tons per year of sintered neodymium-iron-boron magnets, according to a news release. It will also be able to produce up to 5,000 metric tons per year of strip-cast metal and alloy.
Commissioning is expected to begin in 2028.
Pact
Defense technology startup Covenant said it has expanded its production lower cost missiles at a 105,000-square-foot factory in Dallas.
The facility opened Wednesday and is expected to begin production of a new long-range, heavy-load weapon system called Anthem in the first quarter of 2027. It is ramping up to about 5,000 units per year and is similar in size to Covenant’s other facility in Saxony, Germany.
Covenant has a contract with the US Navy to make a variant of the “Maritime Anthem” and is working with the US military on a test and qualification program for the startup’s long-range missiles.
The company has booked approximately $150 million in orders to date. It has also raised more than $250 million in three funding rounds led by investors including Peter Thiel’s Founders Found and Lux.
Siemens Healthineers
Siemens Healthineers Molecular Imaging has expanded its manufacturing campus in Rockford, Tenn., as part of a $43.6 million investment.
The medical technology company said Wednesday it had completed construction, adding 40,000 square feet to its 97,000-square-foot campus. It also renovated an existing 7,500-square-foot space.
The Rockford facility is the only Siemens manufacturing site that produces positron emission tomography detectors, which look for signs of cancer, heart disease and brain disorders.
Siemens Healthineers has received a $930,000 economic development grant from the state of Tennessee to offset project expenses. The construction and renovation is expected to bring more than 90 jobs to the Rockford area over the next five years.
SteelFab
SteelFab, a structural steel manufacturer, plans to invest more than 19 million dollars The expansion of its operations in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was announced by Governor Josh Stein on Wednesday.
The project will add 108,000 square feet of space, including three manufacturing bays, two prep bays, two form lines, an office and a break room, according to a news release. It is also expected to create 38 jobs for the area.
The state has offered a $125,000 performance grant to SteelFab of Virginia to help the company expand into North Carolina.
SteelFab has 15 facilities in the United States, where it can manufacture up to 2,000 tons of material per week.
curia
The contract manufacturer Curia has expanded its campus in Albuquerque as part of a $200 million investment to support the packaging of pharmaceutical substances in vials, syringes and other medical containers.
The investment added 70,000 square feet and two isolated filling lines to the 200,000 square foot facility. Curia celebrated the grand opening of the expansion on September 3, with federal, state and local leaders in attendance.
Additions included a VarioSys flexible filling line and a high-speed vial line that can handle 1,000-liter batches at a rate of 400 vials per minute.
The expansion was funded in part by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the state of New Mexico.
