ThyssenKrupp to announce its new steel mill location this week

Louisiana and Alabama will find out Friday which one will be the site for a new $2.9 billion steel plant, the German steel manufacturer to build the plant said Monday.

The supervisory board of ThyssenKrupp AG, based in Duesseldorf, will consider where to place the plant at its Friday meeting in Germany. The company will release the results after the meeting, it said in a news release.

The two Southern states became the top contenders for the mill in a competition involving more than 30 states. The steel mill will employ 2,700 people. ThyssenKrupp is deciding between a location in St. James Parish along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and a site near Mobile, Ala.

The plant is expected to begin operation in 2010.

Both Alabama and Louisiana are offering tax breaks and other incentives to attract the company.

Alabama’s Legislature just passed a package of tax breaks for the mill _ on top of a $400 million incentives package designed to attract the steel mill and other major industries to the state.

The Louisiana Legislature, pushed by Blanco, approved a $300 million fund late last year for site improvements and construction to help lure the steel plant. The governor is asking legislators to add another $100 million to that fund.