Manufacturers across steel, rare earths, medtech, defense and other sectors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars expanding, renovating or constructing U.S. facilities to improve domestic value chains and increase supply output.
Several are receiving state and federal funding as the Trump administration looks 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.
U.S. Steel
U.S. Steel has resumed operations at its largest blast furnace following a $350 million reline project, the 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 systems to extend its operational life.
Employees and contractors from across the region worked on the relining, with a peak workforce of 1,000 on site per day, U.S. Steel said.
The outage ran from February to September, Steel Market Update reported. Teams also completed maintenance on supporting infrastructure such as furnace gas, cooling water, hoisting and stove systems. U.S. Steel started the relining months after Japan-based Nippon Steel completed its acquisition of the company.
Array Technologies
Array, a maker 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 across production, assembly, design, engineering and customer service, according to a news release.
The facility is roughly 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, tooling and die technicians and process engineers, according to the release. The components manufactured at the facility qualify for the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit under the Inflation Reduction Act.
USA Rare Earth
USA Rare Earth on Wednesday broke ground on a rare earth metal and magnet manufacturing plant in Blacksburg, South Carolina, marking a step toward the expansion of its domestic supply chain.
The $1.2 billion investment is expected to create 490 jobs and increase U.S. output of raw materials used across 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.
Covenant
Defense tech startup Covenant said it has expanded production of its lower-cost missiles to a 105,000-square-foot factory in Dallas.
The facility opened Wednesday and is expected to begin production of a new heavy-payload, long-range weapon system called Anthem in the first quarter of 2027. It is ramping toward 5,000 units per year and is similar in size to Covenant’s other facility in Saxony, Germany.
Covenant has a contract with the U.S. Navy to make a “Maritime Anthem” variant and is working with the U.S. Army 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 across three rounds of funding led by investors such as Peter Thiel’s Founders Found and Lux.
Siemens Healthineers
Siemens Healthineers Molecular Imaging has expanded its manufacturing campus in Rockford, Tennessee, as part of a $43.6 million investment.
The medical technology company on Wednesday said it had completed construction, adding 40,000 square feet to its 97,000-square-foot campus. It also renovated an existing 7,500 square feet of space.
The Rockford facility is Siemens’ only manufacturing site that produces positron emission tomography detectors, which scan for signs of cancer, heart disease and brain disorders.
Siemens Healthineers has received a $930,0000 economic development grant from the state of Tennessee to offset project expenses. The construction and renovations are expected to bring more than 90 jobs to the Rockford area over the next five years.
SteelFab
SteelFab, a structural steel fabricator, plans to invest more than $19 million expanding its operations in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday.
The project will add 108,000 square feet of space, including three fabrication bays, two prep bays, two shape 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 in North Carolina.
SteelFab has 15 facilities across the United States, where it can fabricate up to 2,000 tons of material per week.
Curia
Contract manufacturer Curia has expanded its campus in Albuquerque as part of a $200 million investment to support the packaging of drug 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 Sept. 3, with federal, state and local leaders in attendance.
The additions included a VarioSys flexible filling line and a high-speed vial line that can handle 1,000 liter batch sizes at a speed of 400 vials per minute.
The expansion was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the state of New Mexico.
