Nucor Corporation announced that it has applied for a permit to build a state of the art iron making facility at St James Parish in Louisiana. The new company would be called Nucor Steel Louisiana.

The project 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 US, it would be the first Greenfield pig iron facility built here in more than 30 years.

Nucor has selected advanced heat recovery coke technology to be used in this facility. Unlike conventional coke facilities, this coke plant would capture waste heat and use it to produce power, making our operation self sufficient in power. Nucor's blast furnaces will have the latest designs for emissions controls and energy efficiency. This facility would capture waste energy from the blast furnaces to produce power over and above our own requirements. 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 facility 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.

Mr Daniel R DiMicco chairman & CEO of Nucor said that "Nucor would build one of the most modern iron making facilities in the world to produce 3 million tonnes 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. At the same time, this project would help Nucor achieve our long term goal of increasing control over our raw materials supply."

Louisiana Governor Mr Bobby Jindal said that "We are proud that Nucor, a company with a great reputation for creating jobs in the US is considering Louisiana for this important project. This would provide a tremendous boost to Louisiana's economic development and further job creation. We will continue to work with local communities here to attract a facility that can become a national model for responsible manufacturing and economic growth."