1. Korean Company To Bring 200 New Jobs to Small Town
ELBA—A Korean automotive parts manufacturer has announced that it will locate in Coffee County and hire 200 people in the small town of 4,000 residents.The announcement was made this week by Koo-Ryong Jung, chairman of a Korean company founded in 1978. Jung said he was looking forward to becoming a corporate citizen of Elba. “This plant will be our home,” he said.
The acquisition of Toledo Molding and Die resulted in the creation of INZI Controls Alabama Inc. The company has 22 plant locations in Korea, India, China and Malaysia and employs 44,000 people.
As Toledo Molding and Die, the Elba plant has employed 84 people and is a manufacturer of injection and blow molded automotive parts. Current Plant Manager Keith Reigel will remain manager. Younsik Moon has been named president of the Elba facility.
2. HK Motors Finalizing Contracts for Manufacturing, Supply
BAY MINETTE -- Things are quiet at a 3,000-acre industrial megasite northeast of town, but events in China are moving an eco-friendly auto plant closer to reality, a company executive and local economic recruiter said last week. Charles Huang, vice chairman of Hybrid Kinetic Motors, said company leaders including Chairman Yung "Benjamin" Yeung, are finishing several agreements for design and production of components for the Alabama-built autos.
HK Motors announced in September that the $4.3 billion plant would employ about 5,800 at full capacity, producing 1 million vehicles annually by 2018. Huang said in an e-mailed response to questions that he will meet in Europe soon with "vehicle design, styling, engineering and validation partners to finalize our agreement" that could be signed in coming weeks.
"This agreement and the agreement on engine and powertrain development and engineering ... (which we signed earlier and have already made our initial payment) are the most important contracts for HK Motors," he wrote. Huang stated that the company has made "substantial progress" in talks with suppliers for the pressing shop, welding, body, paint and final assembly shop. "The next step is plant design and component supplier selection," he added...
3. Huntsville Firm Celebrates Grand Opening of New Headquarters
HUNTSVILLE -- When Bill Waite and Steve Hill started AEgis Technologies, they worked out of the basement of Waite's home and bought their first piece of equipment, a printer, in a cash transaction by the trunk of a car parked behind a Taco Bell restaurant. Twenty years after that modest launch, the goal at the Huntsville-based modeling and simulation company is impressive.
"We want to be recognized as a world leader in modeling and simulation," said Waite, the company's chairman and chief technical officer, and its employees have worked hard to build that reputation. "Lots of companies do modeling and simulation, but they don't do it as their primary activity." The company hosted a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony this month for its 50,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Cummings Research Park. The building has clean-room facilities, a laser laboratory, a 3D computer modeling lab for its geospatial engineers, collaboration rooms and a conference room that seats 150 people and an exercise room.
4. ST Aerospace Contract May Bring 200 New Jobs to Mobile
ST Aerospace Mobile could hire as many as 200 new employees, after it won a new airplane maintenance contract.
The contract, announced this month, calls for the company to maintain Airbus A320 and Boeing 767 planes belonging to "a major U.S. airline." The contract is worth $90 million for the first three years, and has an option for another two years worth another $80 million, for a total possible value of $170 million. Work would begin early next year.
Based at Brookley Field Industrial Complex, the airplane repair and modification firm currently has close to 1,300 employees and contractors, said President Joseph Ng. He said that if ST Aerospace Mobile holds on to all its other work, it would need to grow to nearly 1,500 employees.
5. Military Realignment on Schedule, Half of Jobs Moved to Redstone
An infusion of jobs in this area, important when Redstone Arsenal's expansion was announced in 2005, has renewed significance after a recession and lingering 10 percent unemployment. The Base Realignment and Closure process is living up to expectations, said Redstone Arsenal's garrison commander, Col. Robert Pastorelli, at an Athens presentation Thursday. In addition to previously announced jobs and construction, Pastorelli said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will have larger installations than initially planned dealing with explosives.
"We have not only Army and defense work, we are growing as a federal installation," Pastorelli said. Another possible expansion, not required by BRAC, is the relocation of the 300-employee Army Contracting Command to Redstone.
6. Andalusia Plant To Expand Operations by One Third
Andalusia plant SaeHaeSung will expand it operations there by one-third. The expansion is the result of several months of negotiations between Mr. In-Tae Heo, President of SaeHaeSung Alabama, and Mayor Earl Johnson that began in Andalusia last July and in Korea in August.
SaeHaeSung is a tier two supplier of automotive parts that employs approximately 60 people in Andalusia's first speculative industrial building. It is not yet known how many additional employees that the expansion will require, but Mayor Johnson expects that more employees will be needed.
7. Imperial Aluminum To Hire 50 People in Scottsboro
SCOTTSBORO - Imperial Aluminum announced its new operations here this month. The Chicago-based company plans to hire up to 50 people at the aluminum smelting plant, located across from the Polyamide plant on Roy Owens Boulevard.
"We're looking forward to doing business in Scottsboro," General Manager Mike Peebles told state and local officials who showed up for the announcement and a tour of the plant.
The plant will use scrap aluminum to produce an alloy for the building and automotive industry, he said. Peebles said the company expects to produce about 100 million pounds of product a year.
8. Forbes Names Huntsville One of Smartest Cities in U.S.
Forbes magazine this month named Huntsville as one of the “smartest cities in the United States.” “Huntsville, Ala., has long had a "smart" core to its economy--a legacy of its critical role in the NASA ballistic missile program. Today the area's traditional emphasis on aerospace has been joined by bold moves into such fields as biotechnology. Kiplinger recently ranked the area's economy No. 1 in the nation.”
9. ThyssenKrupp Begins Installing Equipment
CALVERT — Spindly structural steel once dominated the horizon at Thyssen- Krupp AG's 3,700- acre site on the Mobile-Washington county line. Now, it's the metal siding in Thyssen- Krupp's unusual color scheme of browns, yellows, greens and blues.
With the exteriors of most mill buildings nearing completion, the focus has increasingly shifted to installing the equipment that goes inside the structures of the $4.65 billion complex. The larger carbon steel division is sprinting toward the start of production next spring. The smaller stainless unit, which faces an uncertain schedule for starting most of its operation — the company uses the term "flexible" — now hopes to begin next summer to cut and polish stainless steel made elsewhere, in advance of starting its first rolling mill in October.
10. Brewton Company Lands $50 Million Contract for Brake Components
Citation Corp. has secured a new $50 million contract to manufacture brake components for hybrid cars, which local economic development officials said was good news for the Brewton facility.Citation will supply iron-cast brake components for small hybrid cars and crossover utility vehicles for the North American market for Continental Teves, a subsidiary of Continental AG.
“Citation and Continental Teves have partnered for more than five years on several passenger car, sport utility vehicle and CUV programs, and this contract reaffirms our ability to meet customers’ increased needs for critical brake applications on hybrid vehicles,” said Tony Lovell, Citation’s newly-appointed vice president of sales and marketing. The five-year program is set to launch in October 2011 and would generate $50 million in revenue over the life of the program, a Citation spokeswoman said.