Nextracker Inc. and MSS Steel Tubes USA, a joint venture of Metalogalva and Soufer, commissioned a new Tennessee factory to manufacture low-carbon steel components for Nextracker’s solar tracking systems. The Memphis-based facility will manufacture steel torque tubes and create 129 new jobs. Nextracker’s dedicated tube mill will feed projects in Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia.

Portuguese industrial company Metalogalva Group and Brazilian steelmaker Soufer Group formed MSS Steel Tubes USA to reconfigure a vacant industrial building to manufacture for Nextracker. Nextracker and MSS Steel Tubes held a ceremony on May 18 to dedicate the steel tube line in partnership with Silicon Ranch, which is developing many of the projects that need the components Nextracker is supplying.