If buying substantial amounts of land is any indication that Louisiana is about to land a major facility, then, Nucor Steel is showing it’s on the fast economic development track.
Nucor Steel Louisiana LLC recently has closed on two additional pieces of property in St. James Parish, giving the company ownership of over 3,800 acres representing over 90 percent of the land required for its proposed multi-phase iron and steel facility.
Gov. Bobby Jindal issued the following statement on Nucor's decision to acquire additional land in St. James Parish:
"Although we're pleased with the many economic development wins we've secured since taking office early last year, we're definitely not slowing down. We continue to aggressively pursue opportunities to help our existing companies expand and to attract new investment to our state.
"One of the projects we continue to actively pursue is the proposed Nucor facility for St. James Parish. I'm pleased to share today that Nucor continues to indicate strong interest in Louisiana. In fact, in just the last few weeks, the company has purchased and closed on two additional parcels of property representing roughly 3,000 acres in St. James Parish. Considering all of its land purchases to date, Nucor now has invested over $50 million in over 3,800 acres of land in St. James Parish. These sites comprise well over 90 percent of the property that Nucor needs to proceed with its project in Louisiana.
"While Nucor has not yet made a definitive decision to proceed, its land investment is another positive indication of Nucor's increasing interest in Louisiana."
In May 2009, the company acquired nearly 890 acres of land for $16.3 million. Recently, Nucor acquired 172 acres from the Port of South Louisiana and 2,816 acres from Entergy. Combined, these three sites total more than 3,800 acres and were purchased for over $50 million.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret issued the following statement about Nucor's decision process:
"While we understand that Nucor will not make a final site selection decision until its air quality permit is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and until its concerns about potential legislation at the federal level are resolved, we certainly view the company's decision to continue purchasing land to assemble the proposed site as a very positive indicator of Nucor's interest in Louisiana. This project remains a top priority of our administration, and we are cautiously optimistic that Nucor ultimately will select Louisiana for this huge project."
Do I perhaps hear the murmurings of tariffs?????? At the same time balanced out by higher taxation to the local population with a reduction in available credit to pay down on the interest and principle to be satisfied by additional import exploits into our heartland with our indiginous population reduced to producing babbles and beads with side dallyances in porn with export intentions being at the forfront????? Sounds like a doable plan to me? Alternatives out there anyone??? Written by
on 9/28/2009
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Nucor? Twenty percent of steel is used in construction. As a result to forecast future steel utlization and to a certain extent, prices, property vacancy rates should be taken into account….. -- higher vacancy rates leads to less construction and lower demand for steel. Sooo, has anyone out there have any idea what the commercial real estate sector is doing? (Here’s a hint, it is wallowing in self pity, here is another hint, it is sort of linked to unemployment, here is another hint, where duration is concerned, employment partially comes about as a result of a demand for goods produced in the manufacturing sector.)…….. Oh, demand? Not going to look at India or Brazil right now where production is concerned, but let’s look at China….. China's increasing self-sufficiency could displace imports and lead to price drops…….. Conversely, enter “Capacity” Increased capacity to produce steel signals lower prices in the future. As a result, capital spending by steel producers is often used as a harbinger of future steel prices - more capital spending today suggests more factories, more capacity and therefore lower prices in the future…. But if a nation is saddled with inflation and no export and is resigned to self production, self consumption consider this alternative…… Consolidation (steel companies buying each other or going out of business) suggests steel will become less plentiful and therefore more expensive……. US Steel, Nucor, and Steel Dynamics are the largest American steel producers. When prices rise, they make more money on every ton of steel they sell. US Steel benefits more from rising steel prices than Nucor and Steel Dynamics, however. Nucor and Steel Dynamics' pricing strategy is to sign adjustable-rate contracts, where the price they are paid varies with the price of inputs such as scrap steel. This means their profits are reliable when prices fall, but means they have less upside when prices rise. …. But considering all the tax payer tarp funds, the bailouts, the printing of more money, the upcomming credit crunch we will experience after February, and of course the credit heads that will fall to the axeman this December, etc., etc., etc. one has to consider….. Companies that benefit from falling steel prices ……. General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Daimler-Chrysler, Volkswagen, Harley-Davidson and other Auto Makers benefit from falling steel prices, as it is major cost in the production of cars, trucks, and motorcycles. 20% of US steel production goes to the automotive industry, and ~65% of the weight of a car is steel. ………. Now if there are no profits to be made, then how reliable is that money when prices fall? Especially if it is cheaper to obtain processed materials from a foreign entitiy????? Now look at world steel production versus world steel consumption percentages on a segregated basis….. China – 30/31% - Japan - 10/8% - Combined other Asian countries 11/15% - NAFTA - (that in part is us dummies over here on the North American Continent) 11/13% - Russia - (loosely) 10/4% (Yikes, looks like it might become a bear market after all) – EU (that’s the European Union) – 15/14% (Nice little balancing act they got going on)…. Stone age European countries…… 3/3% very stagnant, and probably will make some choice Russia/China expansion cooperatives……. And of course the ‘others’ which amounts to 8/10% production/consumption percentages of world steel ‘markets’…. In other words they process and use scrap iron……… Nucor in Louisiana, well, let’s just say that when there is confusion in the streets it is probably a good hedge to invest in raw land… It appreciates in value and has a fairly low tax libaility in comparison…….. Written by
on 9/28/2009
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