I work for a steel company and there is a rumor that a former Steel company CEO is building a mill in Osceola AR, this has been a rumor for the past year, well this week a former pulpit operator (someone who runs computers that control everything) who transferred to another department was asked to re-certify as a pulpit operator and to keep up to date on his former job. Rumor is there is worry that people in key positions could be lost and the higher ups don't want to get caught short of important people.
So where can any info be found such as permit applications, permits granted, property sold etc to find out if this is happening?
Google has been no help

no ideas? i've found nothing

Beebe just announced it. 1.1 billion dollar construction cost. 500 jobs, avg pay of 75k a year.

500 $75k/yr jobs in Arkansas sounds good on the surface, but those figures are always misleading. It ends up being 450 employees making $15/hour, 45 employees making a living wage in management and engineering, and 5 senior managers making several million dollars a year which averages out to 75k/each. Maybe this one will be different...

450  jobs in Osceola at 15 bucks an hour is probably 450 jobs that are needed there right now. That's not exactly a rich part of the state.

I have to apologize, I don't have brother that works there, I work at one of the steel mills but my coworkers have been searching everywhere for info as this rumor has been going on for about a year and I have to be careful because they know I'm a gun nut and might run across this site looking for info but nobody untrustworthy knows I'm a member here and nobody knows my nickname so I'll go ahead and step into the light and delete the CEOs name just for google reasons besides, now that the story is out actual news outlets will get that traffic.
Those pay numbers are real, we get paid a base salary plus a production bonus. I havent made less than $60k the last 10 years and because of gas drilling I made almost double that this year. Those numbers are all "with bonus" without bonus you can cut that number almost 2/3's but in the 18 years I've worked for this company I've never had a no bonus check, I've had some that were about half but not very many because this is a very healthy company that knows its business.
Almost all steel mills have modeled their pay schedule after our company's, as far as managers there is one guy over the mill who also has a similar bonus type pay. At our mill he probably makes close to $2mill the department mgrs make about $200k plus stock options, there are 5 department managers, that average salary is the production workers average, it's true. The lowest paying job is around $40k and there are only about 10 of those jobs, the next lowest is around $55k with no overtime. The highest paying production job is about $110k with no overtime. Supervisors make about $125k
The higher paying jobs are very demanding and as you could imagine HOT. Our casting temp is around 2800F and the type of steel going to be made at this mill is a type in high demand and also hard to make because of quality difficulties. This new mill could be dangerous to my company because they're going after the same market and the guy running it is our former CEO and he knows his shit. The Mississippi mill he built in '07 is very successful and recently expanded.



ETA I have to be careful as we have all been warned about seeking employment there, just flirting can get you in trouble

It's on it's way

while this sounds like a great deal for the state and local area i've recently learned some disturbing facts about the mill

It will be in DIRECT competition with one of the mills already there with the ability to produce 100% of the products currently made there. While speaking the free market language I welcome the competition, in another state far away from this one. This new mill will do nothing but hurt the locals
Big River has projections of around 35% returns, this is insane, right now the entire domestic steel industry has an average rate of around 5-8%, hardly the numbers being put up by Big River. The sheet mill in Blytheville has around a 7% return rate and produced around 25% more tons than sister sheet mills, it is the most productive and most profitable mill in the company right now. The company that is the worlds #11 steel producer, #157 in Fortune 500 in 2011 and #3 domestic metals producer/#2 steel and it is running at about 70% utilization with a 7% return

i'll have some more numbers to post when I get back from work tomorrow night, in the meantime what is it they say about putting lipstick on a pig?

from a work email



-- Driving up our costs for raw materials, energy, labor, railcar and truck transportation

-- Reducing our operating rate which will reduce the pay of our teammates, lowering our overall profit margin which will decrease state corporate income tax, employee payroll tax and sales tax

-- It could also shift orders, tons and jobs to our 3 sister divisions since the freight differentials are relatively low

There is no room in the current market for additional steel

capacity.

-- The sheet steel industry has only been running at 70-75% capacity for more than 4 years.

-- Of the top 27 steel makers in the world, 19 are rated as junk bond status by Moody and S&P. Nucor is the only North American producer with an Investment Grade rating.

-- According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, even if no more steel mills are built worldwide, it will take 5 to 7 years for demand to catch up with supply.

Big River Steel will be a direct competitor to Nucor Steel Arkansas

-- BRS will make 100 percent of the product line made by Nucor Steel Arkansas

-- Nucor Hickman has not operated at full capacity since Sept. 2008 because of lack of demand

-- The BRS project will be built in two phases. Phase 1 involves building a 1.5 million ton plant that is very similar to Nucor Steel Arkansas

-- In phase 1, Big River Steel will not make any unique products in electrical and automotive steels that have limited supply in the USA

-- All the products produced by the BRS phase 1 are readily available by multiple suppliers

-- If phase 2 is ever constructed, it is years down the road and another estimated billion dollars to construct

-- Concerning the electrical steels, there is currently a 21 percent oversupply in the market of Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES) and Non-Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (NGOES). The selling price for these steels is half of what it was in 2008 and China is still building steel mills to produce GOES and NGOES. Additionally, there are 2 producers of this steel located in the USA.

It's funded




LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas House lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly approved Gov. Mike Beebe's proposal to provide $125 million in state financing for the construction of a new steel mill in the northeast corner of the state...........