Nucor's plan to build a major iron and steel plant in St. James Parish, Louisiana won preliminary state approval Thursday. The approval comes just one day after Nucor announced that Louisiana had won the massive project. Once complete, the project to be built between New Orleans and Baton Rouge could total $3.4 billion.
The first phase of the project is a $750 million direct reduced iron (DRI) facility that will create approximately150 jobs. Future phases, according to Nucor, will include a second DRI facility, a pig iron blast furnace, coke ovens and later a steel mill itself, resulting in a total of 1,250 new jobs.
The Bond Commission agreed without objection to let Nucor use $600 million in tax-free hurricane recovery bonds for construction costs through the Gulf Opportunity Zone program. Another commission approval will be needed, after its staff reviews the bond sale details, before they can be sold.
"I would not anticipate any resistance. This is a huge project for Louisiana with a tremendous number of high-paying jobs," said Senate President Joel Chaisson. "We need to find a way to make this happen, and we will."
Nucor must still modify its state air and water quality permits that already have been granted for the proposed blast furnace before work can begin on the DRI project. Nucor officials said they hope to have the permit changes by the end of the year and then expect it will take two years before the first facility is running.