St. James may get metal mill

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: May 16, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A year ago, the great sucking sound heard in Convent, in Baton Rouge and throughout much of Louisiana came with this pre-dawn news: German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG would take its nearly $4 billion steel mill investment not to St. James Parish, but to Alabama.

On Thursday, the dashed hopes of 2007 were running up a new economic development roller-coaster: Nucor Corp., North America’s top steelmaker, could begin building a $2 billion metal mill of its own at the very same site.

This time, Nucor, of Charlotte, N.C., says Louisiana’s site is the only one it’s looking at in the United States. But the specter of offshore competition remains, with the company saying there’s no guarantee it will build the pig-iron manufacturing center.

If it does, an international site might still be chosen. Parish officials have mentioned Brazil, the South American nation with a burgeoning industrial economy, as the real competition.

“For the type of steel mill it’s going to be, I don’t see how Brazil — if it is Brazil — would be a better choice than America,” said Joel Chaisson, executive director of the Port of South Louisiana. “I think we have one of the best sites in the world to build such a facility.”

Three weeks ago, Nucor officials declined comment on an Advocate inquiry about the company’s possible investment in St. James Parish — one it now says could grow to $3 billion and 795 jobs by 2012.

On Thursday, the need to file for environmental permits forced the company to make a public disclosure.

It did so with a big asterisk.

“The project is not a certainty,” Nucor said through a company statement. “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.”

Still, state officials expressed enthusiasm about Louisiana’s chances for what would be the first pig-iron facility built from the ground up in the U.S. in more than three decades.

“For a variety of reasons, this would be a better fit for Louisiana than (ThyssenKrupp) — if we win it,” said Stephen Moret, secretary of the state Department of Economic Development.

Beyond the big picture that both ThyssenKrupp and Nucor considered metal-making projects at the same site — most of it owned by Entergy Corp. —the projects are very different.

Among the reasons why Nucor could be a better fit are: