Company has yet to decide between Louisiana site and one in Brazil
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A tractor works leveling a sugar cane field in Convent. Four plantations once existed on the land Nucor Corp. wants to use for its factory. St. James Parish is the state's fifth largest sugar producer, harvesting about 820,000 tons of the plant in 2006. Calling it a major milestone in its goal to build an iron plan in St. James Parish, Nucor Corp. announced this afternoon that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has issued an air quality permit for the project.
The permit was one of the requirements for the company to continue to set its sights on the Louisiana plant site as opposed to an alternative plan to build a pig iron plant in Brazil.
Last year Nucor completed multiple land acquisitions and now owns nearly 4,000 acres on the east bank of the Mississippi River.
"We remain very excited about this process and the prospect of doing business in Louisiana and St. James Parish," said John Ferriola, Nucor's chief operating officer of steelmaking operations. "We would like to thank Gov. Bobby Jindal, Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret, and the men and women of St. James Parish, who continue to support this project and the jobs it will bring to southeast Louisiana."
As a sign of continued support, Jindal issued the following statement: "We have made economic development our top priority since day one. As a result, we've had more significant business development wins per capita than any other southern state for the last two years. But we're not stopping there. We will continue to do all that we can in Louisiana to convince Nucor that St. James Parish is the right choice for Nucor's exciting new project."
The company said it still faces several hurdles, including climate legislation and regulation pending before Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency, which would make construction of a facility in the United States economically unviable. But the issuance of the permit will allow the company to move forward in its site selection process, Nucor said in a press release.
"We're waiting to see what Congress does with global warming legislation," said Nucor's chairman, president and chief executive officer Dan DiMicco. "Nucor is an American company and we would prefer to invest our resources in Louisiana. At the same time, we have more than 20,000 teammates and millions of shareholders to answer to, and we have to ensure any decision we make is done so with the soundest economic principles in mind."
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Nucor and affiliates are manufacturers of steel products, with operating facilities primarily in the U.S. and Canada.
