Bama lands huge mill
From Staff Reports

The long wait to find out who would get a large German steel plant that will create more than 30,000 total jobs for the area during the next three years is over, with the announcement Friday that it would locate in the north Mobile, south Washington county community of Calvert.

ThyssenKrupp Inc. began its search for a place to locate a new plant to produce its stainless steel, which is used to manufacture everything from elevators to airplanes, in early 2006, narrowing the field of prospective sites from 26 to 2. A site in Louisiana and the one in Calvert were the two finalists.

Gov. Bob Riley and his team of economic developers began courting the Germans, getting hefty incentive packages passed through the Alabama Legislator as late as last week. His efforts paid off Friday when the company's decision was announced around 3 a.m. Central-Standard Time.

The project to build the massive plant was originally planned to cost in neighborhood of $2.9 billion, but during Friday's announcement in Montgomery, that figure had risen to $3.7 billion, making it the largest project of its kind to locate to the state in more than 10 years. Once completed, the massive plant will dwarf the Hyundai facility near Montgomery.

"Only in one generation do you have opportunities to truly transform areas of a state," Gov. Riley said during Friday's news conference in which the decision was announced. "This is one of those opportunities."

Riley was referring to southwest Alabama, specifically the Clarke, Washington and north Mobile counties area, which is in much need of an economic boost such as the one that is expected from the location of ThyssenKrupp to the area.

Facing challenges head-on

Education of the workforce

The southwest Alabama/southeast Mississippi region now faces new challenges of providing enough skilled and educated workers to meet the needs of ThyssenKrupp from construction to plant operations. Monday, Gov. Riley and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour both spoke at a workforce development conference in Monroeville at Alabama Southern Community College. Both agreed that their states would benefit if workers can be trained to do the jobs.

The two states recently received a joint $15 million federal grant to train workers in 37 counties on both sides of the state line at two-year colleges throughout the region. Newly trained workers now earning between $15,000 and $20,000 may see the opportunity to increase their annual salaries to as much as $70,000.

"There's going to be as much development in this area over the next two years as there has been in the last 40 years," said Riley. Gov. Barbour agreed and said the biggest obstacle both states face is providing consistent quality workers.

One concern is that workers, such as welders, currently working in the shipbuilding industries in Mobile and Pascagoula will be lured away when construction on the new mill begins, leaving those industries extremely shorthanded. The governors suggested programs to train welders in an attempt to offset that increased need.

During Monday's meeting of the Washington County Commission, Probate Judge Charles Singleton indicated that Alabama Southern Community College is looking at establishing a training center in the county for the purpose of training workers for the new plant.

County taking

an aggressive approach

Clarke County Economic developer Debra Bolen said, "We are certainly excited about the announcement of the steel mill locating just 35 miles south of Clarke County. the county and municipalities have been anticipating the announcement and are actively working to market the area for commercial, industrial and residential development. We will soon be finalizing a new advertising and marketing campaign for the county. We will be aggressively working to recruit investment to Clarke County and will not just sit back and wait for opportunities to present themselves."

Bolen said the Clarke County Economic Development partnership has already taken steps to certify local industrial sites for the potential EADS project being sought in Mobile. "This step certainly gives us an advantage as we market these sites for any industrial projects."

News reports this week echoed the idea that customers of ThyssenKrupp may relocate to be closer to the new mill in order to reduce the cost of transporting carbon steel, one of the products the mill will produce. ThyssenKrupp officials said carbon steel is fare more sensitive to small price factors than stainless steel, which is expensive enough to absorb price spikes. Stainless steel will also be manufactured at the new facility.

Thomasville optimistic

Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day was his usual optimistic self when talking about the potential affects of the TK plant on Thomasville.

"If you look at the businesses they will be serving, we're located between the plant and the automotive plants that will be some of their customers, so there's potential there," Day said.

Day also stressed the importance of Clarke County aggressively promoting itself during this time.

"We need to be engaged in this proccess, getting Clarke County names and faces in front of these people. We need to take some initiative in getting work here in Clarke County.

"I think this is also expediting other projects that were interested in Thomasville and Clarke County. We're already seeing a surge in housing development and retail enquiried in the past few days and we're seeing some projects coming in that want to try to take advantage of the Gulf Opportunity Zone funding, small business growth and housing will be our two biggest impacts in the next few years."

Jackson looking to entice

new businesses

Friday after the announcement was made, Jackson Mayor Richard Long and several council members sat down to discuss their thoughts on what the future may hold for the city.

"We think this is great for our area," said Long. "We were pretty confident it (the plant) would locate here. We expect to see growth here due to the workforce expected at the site."

"The good thing is that we already have the infrastructure in Jackson to support any residual companies that may locate here," said Councilman Paul South. "One concern I have is the effect it will have on the workforce at other mills in the area in terms of luring employees away from them."

Long said another concern is meeting the challenges local schools may face by the influx of new students that may occur. Several of the local principals have expressed similar concerns.

Councilman Eldridge Jackson Jr. said he is looking forward to the growth Jackson and the surrounding area is expected to experience. Council members will attend the the International Council of Shopping Centers convention next week. Mayor Long and Jackson agreed it will be a good opportunity to market the city to 60 different corporations, which includes 20 developers to encourage retailers to locate here.

Councilman Eddie Huggins said it will be interesting to see how things develop during the next few years. "The thing I am most excited about is that my 9-year-old son and other members of the future workforce will have the opportunity to stay home and work instead of having to move elsewhere."

Councilman Anthony Jackson said the emphasis being placed on the employment pool, although a challenge for the region, is a good thing. "That's the kind of problems you want to have," he said, adding that housing issues for the increased number of workers coming to the area is a nother major concern.

Mayor Long added that he has been in Jackson since 1979 and cannot remember any project of this magnitude being announced since that time. "This is one of the biggest projects to be announced, not only in our state, but in the U.S. as well during the past 10-12 years.

-Arthur McLean, Evan Carden and Jim Cox contributed to this report.

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