Nucor Buys Bourbonnais Alabama Metal Plant, Rehires 65

From the Daily Journal 3-28-17

Nucor Corporation has purchased the Alabama Metal Industries plant in Bourbonnais, and hired back between 65 and 70 of the employees who were slated to be laid off.
 
Jim VanVleet, plant manager of what now is part of Nucor Grating, said the employees were hired back Feb. 6. The plant, located at 1115 E. 5000N Road, was up and running after a couple of “idle” weeks, he said.
 
The news comes nearly four months after Alabama announced it would be closing the plant and laying off all of its 86 workers. Nucor declined to disclose how much it paid for the Alabama plant.
 
Officially, the deal was between Alabama Metals and Fisher & Ludlow, a Nucor subsidiary that fabricates steel and aluminum gratings. In a prepared statement, Nucor said it expects to “produce 50,000 tons of bar grating products from the Bourbonnais facility.”
 
“This acquisition is an important step in growing our North American market leadership for bar grating products,” said Pat McFadden, president of Fisher & Ludlow, Inc.
 
Nucor, which spent about $500 million last year acquiring smaller plants and mills, employs 23,900 workers across the U.S. and Canada, and last year earned just less than $1.3 billion before income taxes and noncontrolling interests.
 
The Charlotte, N.C.-based company, has been on a bit of a shopping spree and told its shareholders in its annual filing earlier this year that it was eyeing more acquisitions.
 
“It is an exciting time at Nucor as we grow our business, expand our product portfolio and move into new markets,” said John J. Ferriola, the company’s CEO, in a letter to shareholders. “The acquisitions we made in 2016 and early 2017 strengthen our position as North America’s most vertically integrated and diversified steelmaker.”
 
Nucor and its affiliates are manufacturers of steel products, with operating facilities primarily in the U.S. and Canada.
 
In December, Alabama Metal Industries said it was shutting down its 250,000-square-foot plant in Bourbonnais, along with plants in Dayton, Texas, and Orem, Utah. A fourth production line of industrial bar grating also was slated to be shuttered in Birmingham.
 
The bar grating Alabama produced was used in domestic oil production sites.