Nucor Buying Canada's Harris Steel For $1 Billion

by Actual News Geezer | January 2, 2007 at 06:43 am

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A few years ago (1991, to be exact) , New Yorker Magazine ran a bizarrely fascinating article about a steel plant in the US south. Somehow, its author made Nucor's search for new ways to make steel so interesting, that I remember it vividly today. The author of the article went on to become a famous book writer, but will remain in my mind one of the most excellent examples of how great journalism can be applied to the most mundae of subjects. (See below link for more on its author, Richard Preston). In the meantime, Nucor has clearly grown to the point where it is now gobbling up other steel producers.

Nucor said Tuesday it will buy Canadian steel company Harris Steel Group for about $1.07 billion cash.

Harris has several business units, including the fabrication and placing of concrete reinforcing steel and the design and installation of concrete post-tensioning systems; manufacturing and distributing wire and wire products, welded wire mesh and cold finished bar; and manufacturing and distributing heavy industrial steel grating, aluminum grating and expanded metal.

The company employs approximately 3,000 people and posted revenue of about $1.19 billion and after tax earnings $72.84 million in the 12 months ending September 30, 2006.

The following is from The New New Journalism:

American Steel
(1991) tells the story of the Nucor Corporation's search for a new way
to pour sheet steel, and the building of a new steel mill in the middle
of a cornfield outside Crawfordsville, Indiana. "In the best tradition
of John McPhee and Tracy Kidder, Preston captures the feel of the
project through direct observation of people at work," writes Mark
Reutter in The Washington Post.