NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Steelmaker Nucor Corp. has chosen a tract in southeastern Louisiana as the only possible U.S. site for a $2 billion iron-making plant that would create 500 jobs, the company said Thursday.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor said it had applied for a permit to build on a St. James Parish site once considered for a plant by German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG.

Nucor said the Louisiana site is the only one under consideration in this country. However, the company said several foreign sites are still in the running and that a final decision will be made later by the company's board.

Last year, ThyssenKrupp considered the site for a $3.7 billion steel mill expected to create 2,700 jobs. But the company opted instead for a location near Mobile, Ala.

According to Nucor, the plant's initial phase, costing $2 billion and employing up to 2,000 construction workers, would include a port on the Mississippi River capable of handling ocean vessels and large barges, plus a three-million ton blast furnace. That plant would employ 500 people with an average salary of $75,000.

Nucor said it was also considering another phase to add a second blast furnace at a cost of $1 billion. That would boost the payroll to 750.

''This facility would create hundreds of good jobs for American workers and demonstrate the effectiveness of new technology to protect the environment,'' Nucor chief executive officer Daniel DiMicco said in a statement.

Nucor said the plant would generate its own power by using technology that recovers heat from coke fuel. In rejecting the site last year, ThyssenKrupp said the Alabama site offered much-cheaper power rates.

The plant also would have technology to produce a byproduct used by the cement industry, Nucor said.

Nucor said an incentive package offered by the state, including infrastructure improvements, was key to its considering the St. James Parish site. Details of the package were not released.

Louisiana offered ThyssenKrupp an incentive package valued at $1.97 billion.