It is reported that a large sugar cane field in St James Parish, a target for heavy industry by parish and state leaders since the 1990s, is now a mass of cranes, trucks, trailers and other equipment and supplies.

Nucor officials said that about 100 contractors for Charlotte steelmaker Nucor Corporation are working at the east bank Mississippi River site just south of the Sunshine Bridge to build the first of two direct reduced iron plants being planned here.

Nucor, state and parish officials broke ground on the DRI plant in March 2011 on Lundi Gras, less than two months after state environmental regulators issued final air permits that allowed construction to start.

The plant, designed to prepare 2.5 million tonnes of iron ore pellets each year for steel making, is the first, USD 750 million phase of five planned. Representing a USD 3.4 billion investment by Nucor, all five phases would ultimately create 1,250 direct jobs by 2019 if the company meets its promised targets.

Ms Katherine T Miller communications manager at Nucor said that "Our current activities center on site civil work, construction of storage domes for iron ore pellets, and driving of pilings for the plant proper and ancillary equipment."

According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, in the first nine months of 2011, Nucor has drawn USD 21.9 million of its USD 600 million in 30 year Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds issued for the project.

The filings show that the disbursed dollars went for DRI construction and were taken from a trust account Nucor set up to hold the Go Zone bonds, part of the state incentive package to Nucor. The incentive package includes another USD 160 million in performance based funding and USD 30 million in state construction funding.

The state set benchmarks for Nucor to meet through each phase and has provisions to take back promised funding if those marks are not met.

(Sourced from www.theadvocate.com)