1. Hyundai Heavy Industries Breaks Ground on New Plant, 1000 Jobs
Although Hyundai Heavy Industries held the ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Montgomery manufacturing plant last week, workers have been preparing the construction site for more than a month.
The plant will be called Hyundai Power Transformers USA. When it is complete in early 2012, it will employ around 500 people in four buildings with a combined area of about 270,000 square feet. Hyundai Heavy Industries is spending about $90 million on the plant. The plant will produce industrial transformers that weigh up to 500 tons and are used mostly by utility companies.
Montgomery companies W.S. Newell and Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood began site preparation on Aug. 11. Since then, the firms have moved about 200,000 cubic yards of dirt on the 40-acre site in the South Montgomery Industrial Park.
Neal Wade, outgoing director of the Alabama Development Office, noted the state's unemployment rate has been dropping for several months. "This is going to help it go down even more," he said. Wade said companies such as Hyundai Power Transformers have helped enhance Alabama's reputation as a good location for multinational companies internationally. "Alabama has become known as a truly international state," he said.
Hyundai Heavy was once part of the same company as Hyundai Motor Co. Although the two firms now maintain no formal connection, the relationship was not lost on those speaking Friday.
Gov. Bob Riley said it was important that Alabama win the project during a 10-month site selection process, and not only for the jobs it will bring. "Hyundai is ours," he said. "Even though it is not the automotive sector, the name is ours."
Gun Shim, a director of Pacific Gas and Electric, one of Hyundai Heavy's biggest U.S. customers, said he was eager to start buying U.S.-made transformers. "We are looking forward to what Hyundai Heavy Industries can do here in a couple of years," he said.
Hyundai Heavy announced the location of its first U.S. plant barely two months ago on July 16.
The plant will have an office, training center, main assembly shop and fabrication shop on the site, according to plans released Friday.
2. Alabama Leads Nation in AP Test Score Improvement
MONTGOMERY – Alabama leads the nation in improved student performance on Advanced Placement tests, Governor Bob Riley has announced.
In a report released by the College Board, which administers AP tests nationally, Alabama showed the greatest percentage increase in the number of students scoring a passing grade on AP tests at 17.7 percent. Alabama also showed major improvements in the total number of students taking AP tests as well as minority student participation and performance on AP tests.
During an event to announce the results at the State Capitol, Governor Riley said the success is directly attributable to the state’s partnership with the A + College Ready program and commitment to funding the ACCESS Distance Learning initiative in Alabama schools.
“These results speak for themselves,” Governor Riley said. “The innovations we have made in Alabama schools are resulting in more participation and higher achievement in AP courses. That means more Alabama students have the opportunities they deserve, no matter where they live.”
State Superintendent Joe Morton said Alabama’s substantial gains in participation and performance result in part from every high school now being able to offer students at least 14 Advanced Placement courses, thanks to ACCESS Distance Learning and other innovative Alabama education initiatives.
“ACCESS Distance learning, the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI), and the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) have all been contributing factors to the increase in AP achievement and the overall rise in academic success in Alabama. With ACCESS, students now have educational opportunities that would have been impossible just a few short years ago,” Morton said. “The success of ARI, AMSTI, and the ACCESS distance learning program has set Alabama apart as a leader in education reform.”
ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide) uses online and interactive video conferencing technology to link classrooms and offer coursework to students in schools where those courses may not be available. Because of ACCESS, 150 Alabama schools now offer AP classes when previously they could not.
3. Suppliers for Mercedes C-Class Could Pump Millions into Economy
It will be four years before the first C-Class sedan rolls off the floor at the Mercedes-Benz auto assembly plant in Vance, but some folks are already anticipating what’s expected to be the biggest economic boon to West Alabama since Mercedes came here in the mid-90s.
Mercedes launched Alabama’s automotive industry in 1993 when it picked Vance as the site of its first North American assembly plant. By the time the plant opened three-and-a-half years later, dozens of automotive suppliers had located in the state, and over the next decade more auto makers and automotive suppliers came to Alabama and the Southeast.
Now with the popular C-Class soon to be added to the vehicle production line-up in Vance, a new wave of suppliers and hundreds if not thousands of new jobs could be in the pipeline.
“If you look at just what (automotive supplier) Faurecia is building (in Cottondale) — a $20 million investment to just support the seating for the M-Class, GL-Class and R-Class — you will get an idea of the potential that exists with the arrival of the C-Class,” said Dara Longgrear, executive director of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority.
He said C-Class production could mean an additional $100 million in new investments from automotive suppliers building new plants or expanding existing plants in West Alabama to serve the C-Class. “It is not beyond belief to envision a number of $10 million investments,” he said. “It might come in ten $10 million investments or there might be $25 million investment in there, too.”
4. Vance Auto Supplier Expansion Will Double Plant’s Size
VANCE -- Brose Tuscaloosa Inc., an automotive parts supplier, says it plans a 100,000-square-foot expansion at its production plant in Vance that will add 112 employees. The expansion announced last week is the plant's second within a year and will double the plant's size.
Johannes Carl, general manager of the Tuscaloosa plant, said the expansion will cost about $26.4 million. Carl says the plant now has 82 workers and makes automotive parts for four automakers.
Carl says Brose will make seat adjusters with cushion pads for an undisclosed automaker when the expansion is completed. He declined to identify the automaker.
5. ThyssenKrupp Reaches Milestone at New Calvert Plant
ThyssenKrupp AG’s carbon steel division has successfully processed its first roll of steel in its cold-rolling mill, putting into production the second major piece of the carbon steel part of the $5 billion complex.
Scott Posey, spokesman for ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, said the first roll was completed at 4:30 p.m. last Monday, the conclusion of a startup process that began Saturday. After unrolling the coil and moving it through a pickling line to eliminate corrosion, workers used a tandem mill to reduce the thickness of the steel from 2.59 millimeters to 1 millimeter.
On July 31, the German steelmaker successfully processed its first coil of steel in its hot strip mill. The first major unit on the carbon steel side, it melts slabs made elsewhere and presses them into a thin strip that can be rolled up into coils.
With the cold-rolling mill on line, the carbon steel unit will now turn its attention to completing the hot-dip galvanizing line. The company expects to start the first of two such lines in December.
6. Korean Steel Giant Posco Opens Automotive Steel Cutting Plant
The Alabama operations for Korean steel giant Posco has officially opened its automotive steel cutting plant in McCalla in what a senior executive dubbed "the center of the automotive industry in the U.S."
Posco-AAPC, as the Alabama plant is known, will bring in large rolls of steel by rail and truck and cut them into parts for automakers in the Southeast. The company's grand opening ceremonies did not specify which automakers the plant would supply, but the presence at the ribbon cutting of VIPs from Hyundai, BMW and Volkswagen provided an obvious clue.
Posco has invested $19 million in the plant and, with the help of Jefferson County, Gray Construction and the Jefferson County Economic Development and Industrial Development Authority, completed an aggressive construction schedule in just over nine months.
The plant is located in Jefferson Metropolitan Park-McCalla, which the authority controls.
7. Southern Research Institute Plans $20 Million Expansion
Porter, White & Co. has completed a $20 million financing deal for Birmingham-based Southern Research Institute to renovate and expand its research and development facilities.
Southern Research is expanding its highly-specialized lab space and equipment, a statement from Porter White said. The financing can also be used to retain jobs and recruit new researchers to the area.
For nearly 70 years, Southern Research has conducted basic and contracted research, including pre-clinical drug discovery and development, engineering, and environmental- and energy-related research.
8. NASA Celebrates 50 Years in Huntsville Where It All Began
HUNTSVILLE - NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center marked its 50th birthday in Huntsville with a celebration here. "We promise to keep adding to Alabama history," Center Director Robert Lightfoot told dignitaries at the unveiling of a state historic marker commemorating 50 years since former President Dwight Eisenhower dedicated Marshall on Sept. 8, 1960.
In total, some 7,500 people still work for Marshall and its Huntsville contractors on missions as varied as rocket propulsion, a new solar probe announced last week, and the next-generation space telescope.
Marshall is where it all began for NASA. The center's first director was Dr. Wernher von Braun; five of its structures are national historic landmarks, and every American space milestone has a Marshall fingerprint. From the early Gemini rockets to the solid rocket boosters that lift the space shuttle, Marshall's story is NASA's story.
"It's impossible to imagine Huntsville without NASA and the Marshall Space Flight Center," said Charles Winters, executive vice president of the Huntsville-Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
9. Austal Employment Reaches 1,800 in Mobile Area
MOBILE - Austal USA continues to hire new workers, and now employs more than 1,800 people at its Mobile River shipyard, according to company spokeswoman Michelle Bowden. The company started the year with about 1,000 workers, but ramped up hiring given its contract to building high-speed transport ships for the U.S. military.
Austal is also competing against a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. for a $5 billion contract to build 10 littoral combat ships for the U.S. Navy. If Austal wins, it will hire an additional 1,200 people, Bowden said.
In late May, the company had 1,257 employees, making it the largest manufacturing employer in the area, according to the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. Austal's shipyard opened in February 2001 with less than 100 employees. Since then, it has built and delivered 11 aluminum vessels, including the USS Independence littoral combat ship for the U.S. Navy. Austal is currently building its second LCS and its first joint high-speed vessel, the transport that will be used by both the Navy and U.S. Army.
10. Birmingham Has Third Highest Hiring Outlook in Nation
The Birmingham area had the third strongest hiring outlook in the nation for the upcoming fourth quarter, according to a Manpower survey. The employment company’s Employment Outlook Survey showed 18 percent of local employers plan to hire more employees during the quarter, up from 9 percent in the same quarter last year.
While five percent anticipate reducing their payrolls and another 71 percent expect to maintain worker levels, Birmingham’s hiring plans put the net employment outlook at 13 percent – the third best in the nation.
Birmingham tied at third with Grand Rapids, Mich., and Greenville, S.C. Strongest ahead of Birmingham were Raleigh, N.C., and Washington, D.C., tied with 15 percent anticipated employment, and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with 14 percent. Manpower said the weakest hiring prospects are anticipated in cities including Des Moines, Iowa, Las Vegas, Seattle, Columbus, Ohio, and Salt Lake City.
“Employers are more optimistic about hiring plans for the final three months of the year compared to (third quarter) 2010 when the net employment outlook was 5 percent,” said Manpower Spokesperson Chad Brewer. The pace is also much improved from a year ago, when the net employment outlook was -5 percent.
Local prospects look good for construction, transportation and utilities, wholesale and retail trade, information, financial activities, professional and business services, education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and other services, said a news release.