Steel company Nucor Corp. will forge an even stronger relationship with Box Elder County, announcing Thursday it will build a $27 million plant there that employs more than 200 workers.
The new facility in Brigham City will produce metal products used in the construction industry and will join three other Nucor operations in the county: a 340-employee Vulcraft joist plant and connected 30-worker cold finish operation also in Brigham City, plus a bar steel mill in Plymouth.
Hamilton Lott Jr., executive vice president for Nucor, said the new facility will be just east of the company's existing Brigham City operations.
Nucor, based in Charlotte, N.C., had said in May it would build its fourth metal building systems plant in the western part of the country. Able to produce about 45,000 tons of metal building systems and components annually, the facility's operations are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2008.
"We've had a manufacturing facility in Brigham City for 25 years — our Vulcraft facility — and we've found Brigham City to be a good place to work and to live, and we're confident we can hire a good work force there," Lott said.
The Governor's Office of Economic Development Board last December approved a financial incentive in an attempt to land the new facility. Although it did not name the company at the time, the board approved a tax rebate of up to $2,353,350 over a 10-year period for 200-plus jobs paying twice the county median.
Lott said the plant likely will have 75 percent of its eventual work force in place when it opens "and then we'll ramp up from there." As for worker pay, "I think they'll have the opportunity to earn a total earnings of maybe $50,000," he said.
"We are pleased that Nucor has decided to build a new production facility in Box Elder County," Jason Perry, executive director of the GOED, said Thursday. "Nucor has been a great corporate citizen, and this expansion will bring valuable jobs to the state."
The Brigham City Redevelopment Agency also developed tax increment financing of about $1.3 million for land acquisition, about $1.4 million for site preparation and about $1.4 million for infrastructure improvements.
"We're just so excited," Brigham City Mayor Lou Ann Christensen said Thursday, adding that the city worked with Nucor for 18 months. The project was code-named "Steely Dan" as the company worked with the Economic Development Corp. of Utah, she said.
"For a long time, we didn't know who 'Steely Dan' was, but we're thrilled this is turning our direction, and we're the winner."
Christensen said Nucor is "a quality company" that invests heavily in employee education and works to become involved in the community.
"They also pride themselves in not laying employees off in down times," she said. "It's quite remarkable for a manufacturing company to do whatever has to be done to make it through hard times with the employees they have. I think they'll be a wonderful asset to our community."
The joist and Plymouth operations have been in place for 25 years. The cold finish operations began a couple years later.
Lott said Nucor considered "a few" other locations for the facility, but he declined to elaborate.
The company has a little work to do to get the site ready for the new facility.
"We're facing some soil difficulties on this site, so what we're going to have to do is truck in a lot of fill and let it sit there for a while to settle, and that's going to delay the construction," Lott said. "We've had some soil borings done at the site, and some soils are suitable for supporting buildings with large loads and some are not. What we'll do is basically pile some dirt on the site, which will weigh down the soil underneath it, and when it quits settling we'll build the building."
Nucor's building systems unit also has plants in Indiana, South Carolina and Texas. The new plant will give the segment combined annual output of 190,000 tons, with the new plant contributing 30 percent of that figure.
Metal building systems typically are sold to a general contractor. A metal buildings company will both design the structure and fabricate it, then ship it to the job site for the general contractor, who will erect it.
Nucor and affiliates produce steel products at facilities in 17 states. Among the products are carbon and alloy steel, steel joists and joist girders, steel deck, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, metal building systems and light gauge steel framing. The company has about 11,000 employees.
Joists are used to support roof decking. Cold finish plants produce shapes in carbon and alloy steels, and the bars are used by the automotive, farm machinery, hydraulic, appliance, electric motor and other industries.
Nucor, fueled by rising demand for steel, is expanding output with new plants and acquisitions. The company plans a $150 million galvanized-steel plant in Decatur, Ala., and will build another in the South to produce carbon and alloy sheets. Metal shipments have almost doubled in the past five years and Chief Executive Daniel DiMicco has made about a dozen acquisitions since 2001.
In the second quarter, Nucor reported net earnings of $452.8 million, or $1.45 per share, compared to $322.7 million, or $1.01 per share, in the same quarter of 2005. Net sales rose 21 percent year over year, to $3.81 billion.
Contributing: Bloomberg News
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