John Correnti, the former CEO of Nucor, Birmingham Steel and Severcorr resurfaced in the steel world at the end of January with an announcement that he had formed a new company, Big River Steel.
Big River Steel is planned to be located in Osceola Arkansas, and would have a workforce of 525 permanent employees making an average wage of $75000 per year. Around 2000 people would initially be employed in the construction of the mill.
The plan is to produce automotive grade steels as well as products for the oil and gas and electrical energy industries.
Construction of the mill is expected to begin in August and take 20 months.
In 2010, Mr Correnti launched Steel Development Company, LLC (SDC) with plans to build up to five micro-mills in locations across the USA to produce rebar and other products. The Chinese steelmaker, Anshan, agreed to take a 14% stake in the venture but fierce opposition from Congress who feared giving Chinese state owned Anshan ‘technical secrets’ – despite the direct casting – rolling technology to be supplied already being in use elsewhere − resulted in Anshan withdrawing support. To date, only land for one of the SDC mills has been purchased at Amory, Mississippi.
For further information on SDC visit www.steeltimesint.com/news/view/anshan-takes-14-share-in-us-project