1. ThyssenKrupp Gets Chance To Shine in Grand Opening
CALVERT - Alabama Gov. Bob Riley will join ThyssenKrupp Steel officials for the grand opening of the company's new steel making facility at Calvert in
Mobile County. The official opening of the plant will be at 7 p.m. Friday at the plant in northern Mobile County.
At full capacity, the plant is expected to employ about 2,700 workers. The German steel maker decided in 2007 to build the facility in Mobile County after a competition with sites in other states.
The new facility includes a hot strip mill, which became operational earlier this year. About 29,000 jobs were created while the plant was being constructed.
2. EADS Moves Forward with Construction Plans for Tanker Plant
MOBILE -- The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. is soliciting bids for construction of an aircraft production plant in Mobile, where the company is proposing to build refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force.
EADS, the parent company of Airbus, said it was moving forward with construction planning so that it could be ready to move quickly if it is selected by the Air Force for the potential $40 billion deal. EADS is competing with Boeing Co. for a contract to build 179 new tankers for the Air Force. A decision is expected early next year.
EADS in August named Hoar Program Management as its construction manager for the proposed $600 million assembly plant at Brookley Field. EADS said today that Hoar would release bid qualifications Sunday through its web site at http://www.hoarpm.com.
The project's initial phase includes construction of a military conversion center where EADS will modify commercial Airbus A330 aircraft for use by the Air Force. Later phases include construction of administrative offices and a final assembly line for the A330, currently produced by Airbus in Toulouse, France.
3. Railroad Wheel Plant To Reopen In Bessemer with 160 Jobs
A railroad wheel manufacturing company plans to invest $45 million to reopen a vacant plant near Bessemer, creating as many as 160 jobs.
Griffin Wheel Co., a subsidiary of Chicago- based Amsted Industries, outlined its plans to the economic development committee of the Jefferson County Commission.
After being shuttered a decade, the plant would require $45 million in upgrades to produce the latest railroad wheels, officials said. The plant would generate an annual payroll of $6 million.
"The market for railroad wheels in North America has always been cyclical, but we are committed to being prepared for the anticipated upturn in demand stemming from projected increases in new freight car builds and rail traffic volumes over the next few years," Amsted Rail President John Wories said in a statement to The Birmingham News.
Being able to lure good paying jobs to the county is something the entire Jefferson County Commission is ready to support, according to Commissioner Sandra Little Brown, chairwoman of the economic development committee.
"I will be really pleased to see these jobs come to the county and what makes it even better is they will be in my district," she said. "We feel good about it. It's a great project."
The project was recruited by the Alabama Development Office, along with the Birmingham Business Alliance. In addition to the county commission's role, the county also assisted with the recruitment through the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority.
4. Royal Technologies Officially Opens in Cullman
CULLMAN — It took nearly two years, but Royal Technologies president Jim Vander Kolk could not be happier with his Michigan-based company’s expansion into the Cullman area.
“Several years ago, we talked as an organization about how to sustain our business for the next 50 years,” Vander Kolk told nearly 50 local officials, business leaders and politicians gathered to celebrate the opening of the new facility. “That comes by growing our business, and we knew to do that, we’d have to expand and locate outside of east Michigan. During the process, we were courted by many communities, and given the red carpet treatment and shown a lot of packages and incentives — and I want to thank the many people here that helped work on the Cullman package.”
The new 200,000-square-foot Royal Technologies plant will function as a manufacturing facility for injection molding, urethane foam and light assembly parts for office furniture and interior trim for automobiles. The project was first announced in February 2009, and construction was completed about a month ago.
Now a few weeks into operation, Royal Technologies employs just under 50 people — though projections anticipate that number could grow to around 200 next year.
“The things that contribute to our success are the values of success, and those are the fibers that make up our community,” Vander Kolk said. “That became the bull’s-eye for the target of where we wanted to locate, and that’s what led us to locate in Cullman ... It has been less than two years, and now we’re already shipping product out our doors, and we have big plans for Cullman.”
5. McCalla's Jefferson Metropolitan Park Sees Employment Boost
A snapshot of one Jefferson County industrial park offers hope that the economy is finally starting to turn around.
Documents presented at a meeting of the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority show that businesses in the Jefferson Metropolitan Park at McCalla have been hiring. A lot.
Of the nine businesses identified in the documents, six have staffed up a total of 17 percent since January adding a total of 255 jobs. None cut positions. Auto supplier Gestamp Alabama, a division of Spain-based Gestamp Automocion, invested $28 million in an expansion recently. The company had indicated it would hire 30 new workers, but the county documents indicate it hired 95. Also having added jobs, according to the documents, are Johnson Controls (90), Plastipak Packaging (6), OfficeMax (32), Decoma International (20) and McKesson Pharmaceutical (12).
6. Navistar Engine Plant Wins National Community Service Award
HUNTSVILLE -- Navistar International was awarded the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Community Service Award" in Washington, D.C. for the Huntsville engine plant's program that paid employees to work in the community rather than be laid off during a drop in production earlier this year.
Navistar employees worked on Habitat for Humanity houses, built wheelchair ramps for the Care Assurance Systems for the Aging and Homebound, and more. The program was highlighted in People magazine and got a lot of national TV and radio attention.
"It's kind of humbling to me, because they did all the work," said Chuck Sibley, plant manager, during a recent Times interview. "They went out into the community and worked their guts out. They really got a lot out of it, too."
"It was a win for everyone," said Daniel C. Ustian, Navistar's chairman, president and CEO. "The local charities benefited because they received some much-needed help; Navistar won because we were able to retain a skilled and talented workforce; and our employees won because they were able to keep their jobs with full pay and benefits until production picked up."
7. Birmingham Aluminum Smelter Bermco Plans Lincoln Facility
Birmingham's Bermco Aluminum plans to invest up to $10 million on a new facility in Lincoln, allowing the company to more than double output and putting it closer to the automotive customers that now account for most of its business.
If Bermco is successful in purchasing a vacant 100,000-square-foot building in Honda's backyard, it will move all of its Birmingham aluminum smelting and Bessemer scrapping and shredding operations to the new building, according to Steve Weinstein, the company's chief executive.
Bermco buys scrap aluminum that comes from everything from soda cans to borings from aircraft engines, melts it down and casts it into 1,200-pound blocks known as sows or smaller brick-shaped ingots.
A new addition to the plant is a robot that stacks the ingots while they're too hot for human hands and doesn't come with the strained back, pinched fingers and burned forearms that were once costly in worker's compensation claims and lost productivity.
8. Alabama, China To Explore Business Ties
The Alabama Development Office and a Chinese commerce organization have signed an agreement to explore business opportunities.
The state and the Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, known as CIPA, signed an agreement to help promote business investment in both Alabama and China, ADO said in a statement.
The agreement comes after a delegation of 26 Chinese business and government officials visited Alabama this week to learn more about the state. The delegation included agricultural, mining and technology companies.
The objective of the agreement, ADO said, is to identify areas of enhanced cooperation in both Alabama's investment in China and China's investment in Alabama. The agreement states that both participants will jointly promote information exchange to communicate investment policies and regulations, investment environment, two-way investment promotion activities, and other investment promotion initiatives.
ADO International Trade Director Hilda Lockhart said the key industry sectors that will be promoted for attracting China's investment in Alabama will include advanced manufacturing, life sciences, bio medicine and research, energy and high technology.
9. SCA Tissue to invest $15 million at factory
A $15 million capital improvement to its Barton facility will keep SCA Tissue in a position to continue serving customers in the Southeast.
Marty Ferguson, SCA director of Southeast operations, said the company is adding $15 million worth of new equipment that will be in operation by mid 2012. The new equipment will be used to manufacture the company’s Xpressnap napkins, which are used in places such as schools and restaurants. Other equipment will be used to make the company’s proprietary Torkmatic brand hard roll towels, which are used in wall-mounted dispensers commonly found in restrooms.
The equipment will be installed in an existing building near equipment that is already used to produce the two product lines. Construction will begin in 2011 and should be online by mid 2012, Ferguson said.
“These machines will help us to meet our drive to be close to our customers and the demand for these products,” Ferguson said. He said the Barton facility serves the southeastern United States.
Ferguson said it was too early to say if the addition will require more employees at the facility, which employs 500 people and utilizes 50 contract workers.
“We’ll look at our orders when these (production lines) start up,” he said. “We always try to match staffing demands with our orders.”
10. Prattville To Get New Jobs with Medline Industries Announcement
Prattville will soon see more job opportunities for those in need of work, as Medline Industries broke ground on its new $16 million 350,000-square-foot distribution center on County Road 4 off of U.S. Highway 31 South.
Autauga County Probate Judge Al Booth said Medline would use their own money on the center, according to the report. Medline officials say their company is the largest privately-held manufacturer of health care products, serving medical institutions, such as hospitals and nursing homes.
According to Medline's website, the new facility is expected to be fully operational in 2011 and initially employ 30 people.