Steel Development Co. (SDCO) will build a $200 million rebar micro-mill in Amory, Miss. Company and local officials broke ground last week on the 80,000-square-foot plant, which will employ 200. It is scheduled to begin production in the spring of 2010. The new facility will employ Danieli’s continuous bar production technology, similar to what Commercial Metals Co. plans for a new micro-mill in Arizona. The project will ultimately manufacture 300,000 tons of rebar annually.

The company plans to process an average of 500-800 automobile’s worth of scrap metal each day and turn it into rebar, which is used as reinforcement in concrete. SDCO, a venture formed through the efforts of industry veterans including John Correnti and Aldo Mazzaferro, will explore building new steel mills for niche markets.