“The opportunity to announce PRCO America Inc.’s first U.S. facility in west Kentucky comes at a welcome time as we reopen businesses, reinvigorate the economy across the commonwealth and continue to create good-paying jobs for Kentuckians,” Beshear said.
 
Beshear said the company is investing US$5.5 million in the Hickory, Ky., USA, plant, which will produce custom-sized, resin-bonded magnesia graphite refractory brick.
 
“We expect to fill this plant to full capacity quickly,” said Ricky Wang, president of PRCO America. “Refractory made using this new raw material is already showing a 15% to 25% or greater improvement in performance for our customers in products we imported into the U.S. to qualify the new formulations in American steel producing operations.”
 
Founded in Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, in 2008, PRCO America imports refractories for iron and steel making. 
Its customers include mini-mill and integrated steel producers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
 
The Kentucky plant will give the company both U.S. production and increased flexibility for manufacturing and delivery timing, it said.