1. Alabama Auto Industries Show 67.5 Percent Increase in Production
Production at Alabama's three auto plants is up by more than two-thirds this year, as demand surges for state-built vehicles and employees work overtime to fill the orders. Through the first week of May, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai had produced a combined 236,152 vehicles at their state factories, compared to 140,961 during the same time period last year, according to estimates from the Automotive News Data Center. That's a rise of 67.5 percent.
Workers at Hyundai's Montgomery plant are on the job 50 to 60 hours a week this month, including some Saturdays, building Sonata sedans and Santa Fe SUVs. In February, the Korean automaker launched a redesigned Sonata, which has helped set U.S. sales and production records. Hyundai sold more than 18,000 new Sonatas in March and again in April. In March, the plant set a record for monthly production by rolling out 28,350 vehicles, including 19,115 Sonatas. And in April, Hyundai said total U.S. sales for the first four months of 2010 represented a record for the company.
As those lines crank back up this year, workers at Mercedes and Honda also are seeing overtime. At Mercedes' Vance plant, there were four-day work weeks for most of last year. But late in the year, the schedule was boosted to five-day weeks following additional orders, and that has continued.
Employees have worked five-day weeks all this year and some Saturdays, said Felyicia Jerald, a spokeswoman for the plant. Mercedes also has let workers know they can expect this for the remainder of 2010, including some overtime, she added.
At Honda's Lincoln plant, workers are being called in for overtime an average of one Saturday a month. The plant, which had slowed its assembly lines last year to a low point of 900 vehicles a day, is currently producing 1,050 vehicles a day, closer to its capacity of 1,300.
2. Royal Technologies To Employ Hundreds in Cullman
In Cullman last week to survey progress on his company’s new manufacturing plant, Royal Technologies president Jim Vander Kolk was relieved at how smoothly planning and construction has gone.
“Honestly, we had a lot of options when we were in the process of looking for somewhere in the south to expand to,” Vander Kolk said. “We made the decision to come here in the fall of 2008, and I’m happy to say every day that has gone by has confirmed we made the right call. Our experience with local government on every level has been excellent and exactly what we were promised coming in.”
Located at the corner of Highway 157 and Highway 278, the new 200,000-square-foot Royal Technologies facility — clearly visible from the highway — is nearing completion within the next few months.
Based in Michigan, Royal Technologies manufactures injection molding, urethane foam and light assembly parts for office furniture and interior trim for automobiles. Once the facility is finished, production could ramp up as early as September with an initial group of 35 employees. Within a year, Vander Kolk said that number could rise to around 200. The company could employ more than 300 people within two years, according to projections released when the plant was announced last year.
“This building is built for the needs of today, but we do plan to grow,” Vander Kolk said. “If we work hard, are honest, and do a good job, we plan to add a lot of new jobs. We’re working hard to embrace this community and be a lasting part of Cullman and Cullman County.”
Throughout the construction process for the new plant, Royal Technologies facilities director Doug Oosterbaan said the company has made a concerted effort to use local contractors from the Cullman area.
With the recent closing of the VF Jeanswear manufacturing plant in Holly Pond last month — and the loss of 150 jobs there — city officials say the opening of the Royal facility later this year should lessen the blow for the local economy.
“This couldn’t have come at a better time for Cullman and would not have been possible without all levels of government coming together in support of this project,” Cullman Economic Development Agency Director Peggy Smith said. “With our unemployment rate reaching double-digits we are especially grateful to have been selected by a quality company like Royal Technologies for their southeast operation.”
Smith also noted the company’s $30 million five-year investment for the project should create some lasting, positive effects in Cullman County. “They’ll be working with local businesses, increasing our tax base, providing critical additional revenue for our schools and much needed jobs for our citizens,” she said. “The money they’re investing is going to turn over so much that people sometimes just don’t see how much of an impact it has on the area.”
The company has teamed up with the Alabama Career Center and Wallace State in Hanceville to ensure there are trained, local employees available when the plant does open.
“We have started doing a tool and die program, and their company uses a lot of skills developed through that program,” Wallace State dean of technical education Dr. Philip Cleveland said. “They have also offered to partner with us as an industry to provide some die to use for training purposes for the program. We’re really excited and think this will be a great partnership.”
3. Mass Layoffs, Plant Closings Down 60 Percent in Alabama
In encouraging news for the state's economy, mass layoffs and plant closings are down more than 60 percent in Alabama compared to a year ago, according to a state website that tracks such job losses.
Alabama had 86 mass layoffs or plant closings by mid-May 2009 resulting in the loss of 9,329 jobs, but so far this year, the WARN website reports just 18 such layoffs or closings for a total job loss of 3,524 jobs. And almost half of those who lost jobs this year worked in an industry that is the subject of a protracted legal fight -- electronic bingo. Some 1,512 of those workers were employed at Country Crossing, VictoryLand or White Hall Gaming Center, according to the website. Each of those businesses reported mass layoffs on Feb. 5 at the height of the battle over electronic bingo. Another 223 of the jobs lost this year came from BB&T, which is trimming a large number of administrative workers remaining from its takeover of failed Colonial Bank last year.
That leaves less than 2,000 workers from manufacturing or retail jobs who became unemployed in mass layoffs this year. The site only tracks layoffs of at least 25 workers who lose their jobs at the same time from the same location. It cautions that it is not an all-inclusive list of such job losses, but economists said it is an accurate representation of what is happening in the state compared to a year ago.
Keivan Deravi, an economist at Auburn Montgomery, pointed out that the first half of 2009 was probably the worst period for job losses, especially in manufacturing and retail. "Last year at this time, it was just slammed," he said. "This year things are turning around. Businesses are beginning to hire."
The 2009 bankruptcy and closing of Bruno's and affiliated grocery stores led to many of the mass layoffs, but the list also includes several large manufacturing job cuts. Alabama's economy added about 11,000 jobs in both February and March, and economists expect it to show even stronger growth in April when those numbers are announced Friday. "We are looking at 12,000 to 15,000 new jobs," he said. "It is going to be a pretty strong month." Those job gains will be concentrated in retail, steel and auto manufacturing, he said.
Even with those additional jobs, Alabama's unemployment rate is not likely to move much from March's rate of 11 percent. Job seekers, who became so discouraged that they quit looking, are returning to the market and they will be joined by new college and high school graduates entering the workforce, Deravi said.
4. Today It’s Cars. What Next?
From the Anniston Star Editorial Page:
Call Alabama the “Detroit of the South” if you want. It still applies. From Vance to Montgomery, from Huntsville to nearby Lincoln, foreign automakers that have set up shop in Alabama have invigorated communities and boosted local economies. Alabama plants for Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota — plus Kia in West Point, Ga., and Volkswagen in Chattanooga — are prime examples of efforts to broaden our international manufacturing base and strengthen our economy.
For more of the story: http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/7383128/article-Today--it%E2%80%99s-cars--What%E2%80%99s-next-?instance=home_opinion
5. New UAH Center Will Be Pioneer In Study of Complex Systems
A new $25 million academic center in Huntsville will pioneer the study of complex systems like the ones that failed in the Gulf oil spill, officials said yesterday.
The new Center for Systems Studies will be built on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus and headed by former NASA administrator and UAH eminent scholar Dr. Michael Griffin.
Gov. Bob Riley announced the project costing "a minimum of $25 million," including an $8 million state appropriation and a commitment to seek the balance in federal funds from U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa.
The center will study the way various complex systems interact on major government and commercial projects. Griffin said America created the discipline of systems engineering when it designed the Apollo moon rocket, but the next step is finding ways to make numerous complicated systems work best together.
Systems engineering has grown "like wild asparagus," Griffin said. It hasn't been engineered very well, but it's still good most of the time. "When we don't do it well, the results are there for all to see," Griffin said. "I refer you to the Gulf."
"We can build systems bigger and more complex than we can understand," Griffin said. Learning how to understand and improve them is the new UAH center's goal.
Riley compared the new initiative to the HudsonAlpha Center for Biotechnology here, also funded with state seed money. "Transformative," he said, predicting students will come from around the world to study this essentially new discipline.
The center will sit near the UAH lake at a location that will make it the first thing motorists see on the campus when they exit I-565 onto Sparkman Drive.
The plan must be approved by the University of Alabama board of trustees and go through design steps. Officials indicated construction won't begin for about a year, although organizing the center is already under way.
6. Gadsden Company Named Plant of the Year
Food Engineering Magazine recently named Keystone Foods LLC in Gadsden as the 2010 Plant of the Year and featured the company in its April edition.
“We are honored that our efforts to engineer our social and environmental values into all we do here at our new Gadsden facility have been recognized,” plant General Manager Mike Jackson said.“The design of our facility not only makes us more competitive, it enhances our ability to focus on food quality and safety and provides an optimal work environment for our employees.”
Joyce Fassl, editor in chief of Food Engineering Magazine, said Keystone Foods stood out among the other industries that entered the competition. “Their concentration on food safety and quality was the main reason that we chose them for the winner this year,” she said.
Keystone was judged using the following criteria: The plant’s contribution to the company’s long-term business plans; the level of innovation in processing and packaging line design; building and site innovations; on-time and on-budget performance; environmental impact; flexible manufacturing; the level of automation in a plant; food-safety innovation; worker-safety innovation; and any supply chain initiative.
Keystone had been in East Gadsden for 20 years before moving to its new facility at Airport and Steele Station roads. The former location employed about 520. When the new plant was announced in July 2008, company officials said they would be adding 150 employees.
Keystone provides chicken to industrial clients and restaurants. Its customers include McDonald’s and Taco Bell.
The former location processed 70 millions pounds of meat annually, company officials said in 2008. Most of it was chicken and a small percentage was beef. The new plant’s capacity is 120 to 140 million pounds a year, according to officials.
Forty additional jobs were to be created by Southern Cold Storage, which invested $7 million in a facility adjacent to Keystone.
Food Engineering Magazine is distributed to 40,000 readers in North America who work in engineering and operations at food- and beverage-manufacturing facilities.
7. Birmingham, Baldwin Area Economies Still Among Strongest in U.S.
Metro Birmingham has the 20th strongest economy in the United States, according to a study released Wednesday by Policom Corp.
The top 10 are Seattle; Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria; Denver; Houston; Sacramento, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Des Moines, Iowa; San Diego; Madison, Wis.; and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. Charlotte ranked 11th, Nashville came in 13th and Atlanta ranked 18th.
So what constitutes a top area in terms of economics?
"The top rated areas have had rapid, consistent growth in both size and quality for an extended period of time," said William Fruth, president of Palm City, Fla.-based Policom. “The rankings do not reflect the latest ‘hotspot’ or boom town, but the areas which have the best economic foundation. While most communities have slowed or declined during this recession, the strongest areas have been able to weather the storm.”
The study focused on 366 metropolitan areas, including Birmingham. The firm considers a metropolitan area to be at least one urbanized geographic location that has a population of 50,000 or more persons.
To determine how these areas are performing, Policom measures 23 different economic factors. The data company followed 20 years of data. The most recent study focused on a 19-year period stretching from 1989 to 2008.
The firm also ranked 576 micropolitan areas and placed Alabama's Daphne-Fairhope-Foley area 20th.
Policom is an independent research firm that focuses on economics and specializes in analyzing local and state economies.
8. New Limestone County Operation May Employ Up To 50 People
MAI Manufacturing recently held a ribbon cutting for its new plant in Limestone County. The plant currently employs six peole, but may eventually employ up to 50 people.
The company produces insulating materials for air-conditioning systems. The parent company is Acoust-A-Fiber Research and Development of Richwood, Ohio, and the primary customer is Hart & Cooley in Huntsville.
CEO Chris Vogelsang said the Limestone County plant would become “a key component to our growth. These guys found this building in March and have worked so hard in just two months.”
State Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison, said companies starting businesses here have a high chance of success. “If you draw a straight line between Decatur and Athens and to Huntsville and back to Decatur, you will have what I call the ‘golden triangle of economic opportunity,’” said Butler. “We have highways, airways and waterways –– it’s all covered. We also have the best labor force. We do partnerships like this every day. The state will work with developers to make businesses a success.”
9. Medical Supply Company To Employ 45 People in Montgomery
Medical supply company Hausted Patient Handling Systems LLC announced it will open a headquarters location in Montgomery and employ about 45 people. Hausted recently purchased a division of Steris, another medical manufacturing company.
It will open operations in a 50,000 square foot building in Gunter Industrial Park. The building has an additional 30,000 square feet of expansion space. The company will begin the hiring process Saturday. Applicants may go to www.aidt.edu/jobs for more information.
10. Alabama Teams with Microsoft To Give Residents Technology Training
The state of Alabama and Microsoft will work together to provide free technology training to Alabama residents. Gov. Bob Riley said that through a program called Elevate America, Microsoft will work with the Governor's Office for Workforce Development, the Alabama Career Center System and the Alabama Community College System to distribute 15,000 vouchers for free, online technology training.
Riley said the Microsoft program will help Alabama residents obtain "crucial computer skills. "The vouchers will be distributed through career center sites in Alabama.