Christensen said Nucor is "a quality company" that invests heavily in employee education and works to become involved in the community.

"They also pride themselves in not laying employees off in down times," she said. "It's quite remarkable for a manufacturing company to do whatever has to be done to make it through hard times with the employees they have. I think they'll be a wonderful asset to our community."

The joist and Plymouth operations have been in place for 25 years. The cold finish operations began a couple years later.

Lott said Nucor considered "a few" other locations for the facility, but he declined to elaborate.

The company has a little work to do to get the site ready for the new facility.

"We're facing some soil difficulties on this site, so what we're going to have to do is truck in a lot of fill and let it sit there for a while to settle, and that's going to delay the construction," Lott said. "We've had some soil borings done at the site, and some soils are suitable for supporting buildings with large loads and some are not. What we'll do is basically pile some dirt on the site, which will weigh down the soil underneath it, and when it quits settling we'll build the building."

Nucor's building systems unit also has plants in Indiana, South Carolina and Texas. The new plant will give the segment combined annual output of 190,000 tons, with the new plant contributing 30 percent of that figure.

Metal building systems typically are sold to a general contractor. A metal buildings company will both design the structure and fabricate it, then ship it to the job site for the general contractor, who will erect it.

Nucor and affiliates produce steel products at facilities in 17 states. Among the products are carbon and alloy steel, steel joists and joist girders, steel deck, cold finished steel, steel fasteners, metal building systems and light gauge steel framing. The company has about 11,000 employees.

Joists are used to support roof decking. Cold finish plants produce shapes in carbon and alloy steels, and the bars are used by the automotive, farm machinery, hydraulic, appliance, electric motor and other industries.

Nucor, fueled by rising demand for steel, is expanding output with new plants and acquisitions. The company plans a $150 million galvanized-steel plant in Decatur, Ala., and will build another in the South to produce carbon and alloy sheets. Metal shipments have almost doubled in the past five years and Chief Executive Daniel DiMicco has made about a dozen acquisitions since 2001.

In the second quarter, Nucor reported net earnings of $452.8 million, or $1.45 per share, compared to $322.7 million, or $1.01 per share, in the same quarter of 2005. Net sales rose 21 percent year over year, to $3.81 billion.

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Contributing: Bloomberg News

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com