Southern states vie for new steel projects

Three states in the southern US are finalists for some major steel projects. Florida-based Berg Steel Pipe Corp. announced this week that Mobile, Alabama is one of two finalists for a proposed $68 million pipe plant. Within the next 30 days, the company will choose between a 92-acre site in north Mobile and another unspecified site in Louisiana. The mill is designed to meet the robust demand for large-diameter steel pipe in the North American oil and gas industry. "Our order book is filled through 2007, and the outlook for the pipeline business is very robust as far as we can see," said Berg's president and CEO Dave Delie. "We want this new plant up and running as soon as possible," he added. The 200,000-square-foot mill will have the capacity to produce more than 180,000 tons of pipe annually, Mr. Delie said. Another southern state, Louisiana, is also a finalist for the site of a proposed steel plant. German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG met this week with Louisiana state economic development officials to discuss building a $3 billion steel plant in Louisiana. The 6.6 million-square-foot plant would be located along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Mobile, Alabama and Osceola, Arkansas are also contenders for the ThyssenKrupp location. The company has not specified as to why it is looking only at southern sites, but water transportation is a major issue. All of the proposed sites would provide a quick means of moving raw material to the plant and moving out finished products, with access to the Gulf of Mexico or the Mississippi river. ThyssenKrupp also has US steel plants in California, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin.