Every power transformer on the grid is built around a core of electrical steel. Flux will make that steel in Ohio.
America's grid is growing and changing for the first time in decades, while the infrastructure we have is aging out. Domestic supply of the steel it needs is short.
Transformer manufacturers are investing in new capacity to meet surging demand, and every one of those transformers is built around high-grade electrical steel. Flux Steel Works is being built to supply that steel.
Our 600,000+ square foot former specialty steel mill sits in Louisville, Ohio, in a region with a long history of steelmaking that builds most of the country's power transformers.
We are fitting it out as a finishing mill that can make the highest grade electrical steel in the world. Production starts in 2029.
Grain-oriented electrical steel, or GOES, is the steel at the core of every power transformer. Transformers change the voltage and current of electricity throughout our grid by wrapping a GOES core in conductive copper coil and magnetizing it back and forth sixty times a second. They do this continuously and with near perfect reliability for over 40 years.
As its name suggests, GOES is unique in that its crystal grains all point in the same direction, which lets it withstand this alternating magnetization while losing very little energy as heat or noise. The better the steel, the less power the grid wastes.
Most new mills start with an empty field. Ours starts with a 600,000+ square foot steel plant that is already standing, with cranes, power, rail and metallurgical lab in place. We are re-equipping it as one of the most advanced electrical steel mills in the world.
Starting from a standing plant saves years of construction. High-grade electrical steel ships from Louisville in 2029.
Trades, equipment and installation for the build, then decades of consumables, spares, maintenance and logistics. Tell us what you supply and where you are.
28 years building U.S. GOES. Former general manager of Butler Works, the sole U.S. grain-oriented electrical steel factory, where he led premium grain-oriented grade development. Advised Big River Steel on its non-oriented electrical steel line.
45 years in electrical steel and three patents. Led a non-oriented to grain-oriented line conversion at the Zanesville GOES finishing plant, and built one of the only new North American electrical steel lines in decades at Big River Steel.
Anneal, coating and cold-mill process engineers. In grain-oriented steel the grain texture is developed on the process lines.
Electrical, controls and instrumentation engineers. This team runs the drives, sensors and PLCs that control the anneal temperatures that develop the grain texture.
Millwrights, electricians, pipefitters and welders for two years of installation and then for maintaining the plant.
Line operators and crew leads, trained on the equipment as it is commissioned.
Technicians and engineers to measure core loss and permeability on every coil in the site's magnetic test lab.
Supply agreements, procurement and project finance for the first new U.S. grain-oriented mill in a generation.
In April 2026 the President determined, under Title III of the Defense Production Act, that transformers and the electrical core steel inside them are essential to the national defense.
It follows more than a decade of findings from the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce and the Congressional Research Service that place GOES at the top of the transformer supply-chain risk list.
“Currently, there are two major bottlenecks in the Large Power Transformer supply chain. The first one is in the U.S. GOES production capacity… a major weak link in the LPT supply chain.”U.S. Department of Energy · Electric Grid Supply Chain Review · 2022
We are building a center of excellence for electrical steel around the site's magnetic test lab, where new processes can be tested on production equipment.
The work will cover thinner gauges, better coatings and lower core losses.
Coverage of the Louisville plant since the announcement of 15 September 2026, and the announcement itself. Links open at the publisher.
Transformer manufacturers, core builders, processors, utilities, partners and program offices can write to us directly.
