JohnCorrenti, the former CEO of Nucor, Birmingham Steel and Severcorr resurfaced inthe steel world at the end of January with an announcement that he had formed anew company, Big River Steel.

BigRiver Steel is planned to be located in Osceola Arkansas, and would have aworkforce 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.

Theplan is to produce automotive grade steels as well as products for the oil andgas and electrical energy industries.

Constructionof the mill is expected to begin in August and take 20 months.

In2010, Mr Correnti launched Steel Development Company, LLC (SDC) with plans tobuild up to five micro-mills in locations across the USA to produce rebar andother products. The Chinese steelmaker, Anshan, agreed to take a 14% stake inthe venture but fierce opposition from Congress who feared giving Chinese stateowned Anshan ‘technical secrets’ – despite the direct casting – rollingtechnology to be supplied already being in use elsewhere ?  resulted in Anshan withdrawing support. Todate, only land for one of the SDC mills has been purchased at Amory,Mississippi.