Employers
Structural steel fabricator SteelFab Inc. plans to invest $30 million in a new operation in Columbia, South Carolina, and create 100 jobs, the South Carolina Department of Commerce announced Tuesday, Oct. 27. The facility, at 1030 Metso Way in Richland County, is expected to be online by the end of 2026.
The Columbia site is a new project for the company. It is separate from the $38.92 million, 108-job SteelFab expansion in Florence County that the state announced on July 16, 2026. Taken together, the two announcements describe 208 planned SteelFab jobs in South Carolina this year, but they are distinct sites with different timelines and purposes, and none of the positions is reported as filled.
What the Columbia operation will do
According to the state, the Richland County facility will strengthen SteelFab’s manufacturing capabilities for the construction industry. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company engineers, manufactures and supplies fabricated structural steel and steel products.
The company is not building from scratch. Richland County Council Chairwoman Jesica Mackey said in the state’s release that the project brings “an underutilized building back into manufacturing use,” which helps explain the short timeline: operations are expected to start within roughly two months of the announcement.
Neither the state nor the company said what the 100 jobs will pay, how many will be production, welding, fitting or office positions, or how quickly hiring will ramp up after the facility comes online. The state directed people interested in working there to SteelFab’s careers page.
The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project. The release did not disclose the value of the credits or the hiring targets attached to them. No local incentive was described in the announcement.
How it differs from the Florence project
The Florence County project announced in July is a new facility at 500 Freedom Blvd. in Florence that will produce fabricated steel parts for U.S. naval defense purposes. That plant is not expected to be online until September 2027. Along with job development credits, the state awarded Florence County a $300,000 Set-Aside grant for site preparation and building construction there, and job seekers were directed to apply at SteelFab’s existing Florence plant on Steel Road.
The Columbia operation, by contrast, is aimed at the construction market, is due to open about nine months sooner, and is housed in an existing building.
The company's South Carolina footprint
According to the October release, SteelFab has 18 facilities in the U.S., including four existing locations in South Carolina. The company’s locations page lists a sales office in North Charleston, its plant in Florence, a specialty metals division in Rock Hill and a sales office and plant in York. The July release said SteelFab was founded in 1955 and opened its first South Carolina fabrication plant, in Florence, in 1988.
“For nearly four decades, we have been proud to be part of South Carolina’s manufacturing community, and the establishment of our new Columbia facility builds on that strong foundation,” chief operating officer Rob Rutherford said in the state’s release.
What it means for Midlands workers
Gov. Henry McMaster described the project as 100 new manufacturing jobs in the Midlands. For workers with structural steel, welding or fabrication experience in the Columbia area, the end-of-2026 start date means openings could come relatively soon. Still, the 100 positions are a hiring plan, not current employment, and the company has not released a schedule for reaching that number.
Sources
- South Carolina Department of Commerce, “SteelFab Inc. grows South Carolina footprint with new Richland County operations,” October 27, 2026. https://www.sccommerce.com/newsroom/steelfab-inc-grows-south-carolina-footprint-new-richland-county-operations
- South Carolina Department of Commerce, “SteelFab expands Florence County operations,” July 16, 2026. https://www.sccommerce.com/newsroom/steelfab-expands-florence-county-operations
- SteelFab, Inc., “Locations,” accessed October 28, 2026. https://www.steelfab-inc.com/locations/
Featured photo: A steel-frame commercial building under construction at Domino Farms in Ann Arbor Township, Michigan, September 15, 2013. Representative image; not a SteelFab project or its Columbia, S.C., facility. Photo: Dwight Burdette, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). Cropped from the original.
