Nucor Proposes Iron Ore Plant in Louisiana to Help Control Steel Costs

John Wolz

Nucor Corporation applied for a permit to build an iron-making facility in Louisiana.

Nucor CEO Daniel DiMicco commented that the project “would help Nucor achieve our long-term goal of increasing control over our raw materials supply.”

Steel prices worldwide jumped this year after the cost of iron ore exported from Brazil to Asia rose 65%.

The site on the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, LA, is the only U.S. site Nucor is actively considering for the iron plat.

Nucor’s announcement noted, “the competitiveness of Louisiana’s proposed incentive package, including significant infrastructure improvements, and the state’s ability to move quickly were very important in the analysis.

Nucor acknowledged the plant “is not a certainty. Regardless of the ultimate site chosen for the project, permits have to be issued and Nucor’s board must approve the selection of the site and the capital investment. If the project is ultimately built in the U.S., it would be the first greenfield pig iron facility built here in more than 30 years.”
Nucor would build one of the most modern iron making facilities in the world to produce three million tons of pig iron, employing the latest technologies to reduce emissions.

“This facility would create hundreds of good jobs for American workers and demonstrate the effectiveness of new technology to protect the environment,” DiMicco said.

The coke plant would capture waste heat and use it to produce power, making Nucor’s operation self-sufficient in power.

By the second phase of this project, the facility would be producing 500 MW of power, of which 250 MW would be supplied to the grid, completely offsetting the emissions that would have been released had a facility been constructed to generate this new source of power.

The plant will have slag granulation technology that produces a valuable by-product used by the cement industry; completely offsetting the emissions they would have created to manufacture the same product.

For a St. James Parish project, Nucor would build a new high-capacity port on the river capable of handling ocean vessels, as well as barges of coal and pig iron. The project’s first phase would require a $2 billion investment and directly create 2,000 jobs during peak construction.

For a second phase Nucor would invest an additional $1 billion for a second three million ton blast furnace and increase permanent employment to 750.

Nucor estimated another 2,600 permanent jobs would be created by suppliers and businesses opening or expanding in the area. Web: nucor.com �2008 FastenerNews.com