Steel Mills

Nucor Dedicates Louisiana Facility

March 4, 2014

Nucor Chairman, President and CEO John Ferriola and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal dedicated the completed Nucor Louisiana facility in St. James Parish on Monday. The $750 million DRI plant began production in December 2013 and is Phase 1 of a potential five phase $3.4 billion project.

Construction of the plant began in March 2011 at a ground breaking ceremony by Gov. Jindal and former Nucor CEO Dan DiMicco and was heralded as one of the largest industrial projects in Louisiana’s history. Nucor has committed to the creation of 150 jobs by the end of 2014 and has already filled 140 positions. Louisiana Economic Development (LED) estimates completion of all five phases would increase direct employment to 1,250 with an additional 4,800 indirect jobs created during construction.

“Our DRI plant represents a major milestone for our company and for American manufacturing,” said Ferriola. “This project is a key part of our strategy to produce more of our own raw materials in order to better control costs and maintain our competitive advantage in the global steel industry. This is the largest DRI plant currently operating in the world and the first one to operate in the U.S. since 2009. We are very proud to be investing in American manufacturing and to add Louisiana to the list of states where Nucor does business.”

As an incentive to locate in St. James Parish, LED offered performance based incentives totaling $160 million over six years to Nucor, with the provision that all five phases of the project are initiated as agreed upon with the State of Louisiana. Nucor is also borrowing $600 million from a federal Gulf Opportunity Zone bond allocation that it is solely responsible for repaying.

The remaining four phases would include a second DRI facility, a pellet plant, blast furnace, and steel mill. Nucor is to inform Louisiana officials by the end of 2015 of its intent to complete the next four phases.

“Today marks an extraordinary milestone for Nucor, Louisiana, St. James Parish and every resident of our state as we celebrate a tremendous achievement,” said Gov. Jindal. “Nucor has built a successful first phase in this ambitious, world-scale project and is producing direct reduced iron for its mills at a higher level of efficiency than anyone has ever achieved. Today, we can proudly point to an industrial accomplishment in Louisiana that is without peer, and we look forward to working with Nucor on future phases as we demonstrate that there’s no better place to invest and create jobs than Louisiana, just as there’s no better place to live, work and raise a family than Louisiana.”