Three weeks after announcing in a quarterly filing that it was temporarily suspending production at its direct reduced iron plant in St. James Parish, Nucor announced today that it plans to resume operations by the end of this month.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm cited poor market conditions for the suspension last month, and says in a press release today that improved conditions in the raw materials market are leading it to resume operations.
“Nucor’s raw materials strategy is built on flexibility, with the company constantly evaluating the market for the lowest cost raw material inputs at the quality levels our customers need,” reads the release. “Changes in the raw materials market led to the decision to restart plant operations.”
Nucor did not lay off any of its more than 150 employees at the plant as part of the production suspension. The plant in St. James Parish was announced in September 2010 as one of the largest industrial projects in state history, to be built in five phases. Just one of those phases has been built thus far, at a cost of about $750 million. If all five phases are built, the total investment would be $3.4 billion and total incentives from the state would reach as high as $160 million, according to Louisiana Economic Development.
