Nucor Receives Okay for Birmingham Acquisition

Nucor Corp. announced that the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice yesterday granted early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period regarding Nucor's acquisition of substantially all the assets of Birmingham Steel. The Delaware Bankruptcy Court had previously approved the sale of Birmingham's assets to Nucor and the companies are now free to close the transaction. The closing is tentatively scheduled for early December 2002.

"The addition of these profitable assets will support our bar products strategy to broaden our base of customers and markets served," said Dan DiMicco, Nucor's vice chairman, president and CEO. "We look forward to welcoming the current employees, vendors and customers of Birmingham Steel into the Nucor family."

In May 2002, Nucor signed a definitive agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Birmingham Steel for $615 million.

Primary assets to be included in the purchase are Birmingham Steel's four operating mills in Birmingham, Ala.; Kankakee, Ill.; Seattle, Wash.; and Jackson, Miss., with an estimated combined annual capacity of 2 million tons.

Other included assets are the corporate office located in Birmingham, Alabama; the mill in Memphis, Tennessee, which is currently not operating; the assets of Port Everglades Steel Corporation; the assets of the Klean Steel Division; and Birmingham Steel's ownership in Richmond Steel Recycling Limited.