Entergy seeks OK to run power to mill
Entergy Arkansas asked the Arkansas Public Service Commission on Thursday for approval to build a new substation and two 230-kilowatt transmission lines to supply electricity to a proposed $1.1 billion steel mill near Osceola.
The two high-voltage transmission lines each would be about 3 miles long.
The cost of the substation and transmission lines would be $81.6 million, Entergy Arkansas said. The company said it would pay for construction from available funds.
Big River Steel LLC and its chief executive officer, John Correnti, plan to build the plant on 1,000 acres south of Osceola if it if its incentive package is approved by the Arkansas Legislature.
If it moves forward, construction of the plant would begin late this year and be finished within two years.
The plant is expected to employ 525 workers making an annual average of $75,000, including bonuses. Another 2,000 workers are expected to be employed to build the plant.
- David Smith
Metals firm to build at Chaffee Crossing
A metal distributor said Thursday that it will build a $12 million facility in Fort Smith’s Chaffee Crossing that will create 40 jobs over the next three years.
Phoenix Metals Co., a distributor of sheet and plate aluminum, stainless steel, copper and carbon steel and other metal products, said in a release that it will build a $4 million metal processing center and warehouse operation on 11 acres. The company will invest $8 million in equipment at the site.
The jobs will pay $15 an hour on average, according to the release.
“Phoenix Metals has been looking to add a service center somewhere along the I-40 corridor from Russellville to Tulsa to take care of our customers in that region,” Don Gray, branch manager for Phoenix Metals, said in the release. Phoenix Metals has operations in 12 states and is a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. which is ranked No. 31 on the 2012 Fortune 500 list.
Chaffee Crossing Executive Director Ivy Owen said the company was attracted by the city’s transportation infrastructure, the work force and its central location.
- John Magsam
State index sheds 1.85; 13 issues fall
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.85 to 271.13 on Thursday.
Thirteen stocks declined and three advanced.
P.A.M. Transportation Services, based in Tontitown, rose 5.2 percent on only 436 shares traded.
Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best lost 5.6 percent in heavy trading.
Four Arkansas stocks either matched or exceeded 52-week highs - Acxiom, America’s Car-Mart, Bank of the Ozarks and J.B. Hunt Transport Services.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 27 on 03/22/2013