Nucor steel mill set
to add $240M line
The board of Nucor Corp. has approved the construction of a $240 million galvanizing line at the company's sheet mill in Mississippi County near Blytheville, the company said Friday.
The new line will have an annual capacity of about 500,000 tons. It should be operational in the first half of 2021.
The project complements a $230 million investment underway to build a specialty cold mill complex at Nucor Steel Arkansas. These projects are seen as important to Nucor's long-term strategy for profitable growth and will accelerate the company's goal of increasing its automotive market share.
"At Nucor Steel Arkansas we are building one of the most modern and efficient steel mills in the world," said John Ferriola, Nucor's chairman and chief executive.
Nucor also is evaluating building additional galvanizing lines at its other sheet mills, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.
-- David Smith
Freightliner dealer
in NLR bought out
Truck Centers of Arkansas, the privately held distributor of Freightliner and Western Star trucks and truck parts, has been acquired by Leslie Doggett Industries, a heavy-equipment dealer in Houston.
The sellers were Rick and Larry Vassar, the owners of LVL Inc. of North Little Rock, a trucking company that primarily is a mail contractor, and Todd Havens. The three formed Truck Centers of Arkansas in 2007 to buy three Freightliner dealerships.
Havens and the Vassars bought the dealerships from Barloworld Inc. of Johannesburg.
Doggett has begun operating the dealerships under the name Doggett Freightliner of Arkansas. The three dealerships raise to seven the number of Freightliner dealerships that operate under Doggett, which has 37 dealerships representing different heavy-equipment lines throughout Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico.
The privately held company said it has 1,300 employees and annual sales exceeding $1 billion.
Freightliner is the North American brand for Daimler-Benz Trucks.
-- Noel Oman
ArcBest rises 28%
as index gains 6.72
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, climbed 6.72 to 415.81 Friday.
Winners and losers were evenly divided. ArcBest shares jumped 28 percent in average volume while Arkansas Car-Mart fell 2.2 percent in light trading.
Total volume for the index was 25.3 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 05/12/2018