Louisiana Loses Steel Mill To Texas
Steel Dynamics has made its decision. The company has decided to build a new steel manufacturing facility in Sinton Texas. That location was chosen over a Louisiana location near DeQuincy.
South Louisiana's loss will certainly be Texas' gain as the new facility is projected to create almost 1,000 construction jobs, near 600 permanent facility jobs, and produce 3 million tons of steel annually.
It wasn't as if Louisiana didn't make a strong pitch to bring the facility to the Bayou State. The Louisiana incentive package included several incentives as did the Texas proposal. Ultimately Steel Dynamics liked the offer from the Lone Star State a little better.
There is also speculation that the Texas location was chosen because of its proximity to Houston and to Mexico. The company sells products in both the United States and Mexico and logistically the location just west of Corpus Christi made more sense.
Despite the loss of this project, economic developers in Southwest Louisiana say their pipeline has several other opportunities to bring jobs and industry to the area. However, officials were being tight-lipped on the specifics of those opportunities at this time.