[ferro-alloys.com]Nucor has selected Brandenburg, Kentucky, as the location for a planned $1.35 billion steel plate mill, the company said Wednesday.

The Charlotte-based steelmaker announced plans to build the mill in January and said it was considering sites in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. It was understood the company preferred to place the mill in a location with easy barge access.

"The selected location on the Ohio River will give Nucor logistical advantages in sourcing raw materials and serving customers throughout the Midwest," the company said Wednesday. In addition, sources indicated the location would give Nucor a cost-effective way to ship into key energy markets in the Southeast.

The Brandenburg site will be Nucor's fourth plate mill. It has existing operations in North Carolina, Alabama and Texas. In addition, the plant will be its second site in Kentucky following the acquisition of the Gallatin sheet mill in Ghenty, Kentucky.

The mill will have an annual production capability of 1.2 million tons of steel plate products, with the ability to produce 97% of the products demanded in the domestic plate market, according to Nucor.

It will move the steelmaker in to the heavier plate market, with a capacity to produce plate up to 14 inches thick.

Much of the existing demand for these products is served by ArceorMittal's Coatesville, Pennsylvania, mill. Following Evraz's closure of its Claymont, Delaware, mill in 2013, ArcelorMittal became the only producer east of the Mississippi able to offer plate greater than four inches thick.

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]