Nucor targets Louisiana for $2B plant

Nucor Corp. may build a $2 billion pig-iron plant in St. James Parish, La.

The Charlotte-based steel manufacturer has applied for a permit to build the facility. The state has proposed an incentive package that includes significant infrastructure improvements at the site.

The site is the sole U.S. locale that Nucor is considering. However, the company is mulling overseas locations.

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No greenfield pig-iron facility has been built in the United States in more than 30 years.

"This facility would create hundreds of good jobs for American workers and demonstrate the effectiveness of new technology to protect the environment," says Dan DiMicco, chief executive. "At the same time, this project would help Nucor achieve our long-term goal of increasing control over our raw-materials supply."

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) will build a high-capacity port on the Mississippi River to serve the plant if Louisiana wins the project.

The plant's first phase would require a $2 billion investment and would directly create 2,000 jobs during peak construction.

Five hundred permanent jobs would be created with an average annual salary of $75,000, plus benefits. That's roughly twice the area's median household income.

In a second phase, Nucor would invest $1 billion for a second 3 million-ton blast furnace. Permanent employment would rise to 750.

Nucor announced Wednesday that it had agreed to purchase a 34 percent share of a new joint venture with Sidenor S.A., a Greek steel producer.

The venture will manufacture and distribute steel products and plate in the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus and North Africa.

Final agreement to establish the company is dependent on the completion of due diligence and regulatory approval.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Sidenor is the largest producer of steel in Greece. The company has additional steelmaking, rolling and reinforcing mesh operations in Bulgaria and Macedonia as well as steel distribution operations in the Balkans.

Nucor is the largest producer of steel in North America, with total 2007 steel production of more than 23 million tons.

News of the proposed deal with Sidenor follows Nucor's announcement Tuesday that it had agreed to buy a 50 percent stake in Duferdofin-Nucor, a joint venture the steel manufacturer is creating with Switzerland's Duferco Group.

Nucor will pay $658 million for its equity stake in Duferdofin-Nucor.

Formation of Duferdofin-Nucor and finalization of the acquisition of the 50 percent stake will occur after regulatory approvals, the transfer of appropriate permits and other contracts.

That purchase is slated to close in the third quarter.

Duferdofin-Nucor will produce steel beams in Italy and other areas of southern Europe.

Nucor announced in January it would form a venture with Duferco by the middle of the year.