Arkansas Governor Announces US$1.1 Billion Steel Mill Project
01/29/2013 - Gov. Mike Beebe on Tuesday unveiled Arkansas’ largest ever economic development project, saying investors were poised to build a US$1.1 billion steel mill along the Mississippi River if legislators approve startup funding, the Associated Press reports.
Gov. Mike Beebe on Tuesday unveiled Arkansas’ largest ever economic development project, saying investors were poised to build a US$1.1 billion steel mill along the Mississippi River if legislators approve startup funding, the Associated Press reports.
Big River Steel LLC, to be located near Osceola, would employ 525 people with an average salary of $75,000 — twice the state average. Beebe said for the project to go forward, the Legislature must authorize $125 million in incentives and the plant must meet regulatory approval…
The mill will turn Mississippi County into one of the nation’s largest steel producers, Beebe said. Nucor Corp. already operates a mill at Blytheville, making steel from scrap metal. Since it opened in 1988, Mississippi County has seen its unemployment rate cut in half…
The plant site is about 40 miles north of Memphis, Tenn., along the Mississippi River, a railroad line and Interstate 55. A major intermodal hub is at Marion, 30 miles away, where goods can be transported by barge, train or truck…
“Arkansas geographic location in the heart of the markets we intend to serve, the state’s well-developed transportation infrastructure as well as the availability of reliable electrical power and the ‘can do attitude’ of the government officials in Little Rock, Mississippi County and Osceola make Arkansas a great place for Big River Steel to make its investment,” Big River Steel CEO John Correnti said in a statement.
The plant will make steel for auto, oil and gas and electrical energy industries.
Correnti, a former Nucor executive, has had success developing steel operations in Mississippi but some of his other projects have failed. He backed a $650 million Severstal steel mill that opened in 2007 in Lowndes County, Miss. A separate silicon plant in the county lapsed when funding couldn’t be arranged.
He also announced in 2008 plans for a $175 million steel rebar project at Amory, Miss. With the promise of an 80,000-square-foot facility along the Tennessee-Tombigbee River and the creation of 200 jobs. But after a celebratory groundbreaking, the project fizzled…
Click here to read the full story from the Washington Post.
