February 18, 2010

South Rises to World's Second-Largest Economy

Using gross state product totals for calendar year 2009, the American South overtook Japan in total gross product making the region the second-largest economy in the world. SB&D's definition of the South includes 17 states from Texas in the west to Maryland in the east.

Total GDP 2009

Economy Gross Product

U.S.                   $14.26 trillion
South                  $5.13 trillion
Japan                  $5.09 trillion
China                  $4.91 trillion
Germany             $3.40 trillion

Source: www.bea.com

Broadband Initiative Awards $101 Million to Kansas Company

In the winter quarter, Rural Telephone Service Co. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nex-Tech, was awarded more than $101 million in Recovery Act funding for broadband Internet infrastructure improvements in central and western Kansas. The funds will be used to enable the development of broadband services in a 4,600 square-mile region of Kansas that's 99.5 percent unserved or underserved.

Rural Mississippi County Launches Tuition Assistance Program

In the winter quarter, officials in Tishomingo County, Miss. announced a new tuition assistance program that funds the tuition costs for students in the county to attend Northeast Mississippi Community College. Graduating seniors of the Class of 2010 will be the first class to be served by the new program. To be accepted students must graduate from high school by the end of May, take the ACT before the end of June, enroll in Northeast Mississippi Community College for the fall semester as a full time student and then maintain a "C" average.

Rural South Carolina Deal

In February, Bennettsville Printing announced it will locate its new operations in Marlboro County, S.C. The company expects to hire 40 in the $3 million project.

New Plant in Kings Mountain, N.C.

Solaris Industries, an international manufacturer of steel tubing, is locating a new plant in Kings Mountain, N.C. Solaris is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delhi Solac of Canada. The project will create 40 new jobs. 
 
Gordon Food Service Creating 350 New Jobs in Plant City, Fla.

In the winter quarter, Gordon Food Service confirmed it bought the Albertson's distribution center in Plant City, Fla. to service its expansion throughout central Florida. The company expects to hire more than 350 people to work in the million-square-foot warehouse.

Defense Consultant Expanding in Fayetteville, N.C.

Booz Allen Hamilton, the large Virginia-based contractor to the Department of Defense, has elected to expand its presence in Fayetteville, N.C., home to Fort Bragg. The deal is expected to create 300 new jobs. "Our firm had the option of locating anywhere to support our work with FORSCOM and USARC," said William Butler, the Booz Allen executive who is heading up the relocation effort from Fort McPherson to Fayetteville. But in the end, Booz Allen decided to set up shop in the backyard of the U.S. Army Forces Command and Reserve Command at Fort Bragg.

Chegg.com Locating New Logistics Operation in Kentucky

Chegg.com's newest warehousing and distribution operation is going to an existing 611,000-square-foot facility at the Cedar Grove Business Park in Shepherdsville, Ky. The textbook rental company is creating more than 100 new full-time jobs and 1,200 part-time seasonal jobs in the $27.3 million deal.

Editorial

Toyota's Problems Not Good News for Mississippi

Toyota's multiple issues over quality control of its vehicles is not good news for the state of Mississippi where the Japanese automaker built an assembly plant in the northeast portion of the state that has never opened for business. In mid-February, Toyota announced it was cutting back production at its two other assembly plants in the Southern Automotive Corridor, one in San Antonio, Tex. and the other in Georgetown, Ky., because of a drop in sales related to the recall of eight million vehicles worldwide.

In early 2007, Toyota chose to build the plant near Tupelo, Miss. to produce the Highlander SUV model. When the SUV market collapsed, the Japanese automaker announced that the fuel-saving Prius model would be assembled at the plant. Then, on December 15, 2008, the company decided to idle the finished, but unequipped facility.

Toyota officials have said there is no timetable on when or if the plant will open. There were rumors prior to Toyota's giant recall that the company would start to assemble the Corolla model in 2011 at the Mississippi plant.

It is believed that incentive agreements made between state and local governments and Toyota require that the company invest $500 million in the project by the end of 2012. So far, Toyota has invested about $300 million in the plant. If the plant was equipped, reaching the $500 million investment threshold wouldn't be a problem. But, even if Toyota decided today to go ahead and start production at the plant, it would take at least a year to ready the facility.

It has been reported by other sources that because of the delay in opening the plant, Toyota will make an interest payment of about $10 million on bonds of $293 million that were issued to the company as part of the incentive package Mississippi gave the automaker. In addition, this year Toyota will make annual payments of $5 million for 10 years to school districts in northeast Mississippi.

mike@sb-d.com

Bioenergy Plant to Open in Rural Georgia

German utility RWE Innogy announced in the winter quarter that it is building a $150 million, 75-employee bioenergy plant in Waycross, Ga. The new plant will produce 750,000 tons of wood pellets from forest industry by products. The wood pellets would then be shipped to the Netherlands for burning in a Dutch power plant. To land the plant, Georgia will provide a $4,000-per-employee incentive over five years.

Fisher Barton Expands in South Carolina

Fisher Barton, an OEM supplier of precision metal stampings and welded assemblies for the automotive industry and other sectors, announced it will expand its Laurens County, S.C. facility. The $2 million investment is expected to generate 15 new jobs.

Globe Specialty Metals Restarts Alabama Plant

In February, New York-based Globe Specialty Metals reopened its silicon metal and ferrosilicon alloys plant in Selma, Ala. The plant was idled during the recession. The plant can produce 27,000 tons of silicon metal and alloys annually. The reopening means 90 workers have been rehired by the company.

Parker Hannifin Expands Mississippi Operations

Parker Hannifin, a leader in motion control technologies and systems, announced in February the expansion of the company's Batesville, Miss. operations. The expansion accommodates additional production of refrigerant control and containment components for automotive, heavy-duty truck and off-road air conditioning applications. The expansion will create 50 new jobs. 

LG Hausys Investing $50M in Rural Georgia

Atlanta-based LG Hausys America is expanding its manufacturing facility in Adairsville, Ga. The company, which will invest $50 million, create 80 jobs and add 95,000 square feet of production space, manufactures surface countertops.

SL America Awarded VW Contract

SL America Corp., located in Clinton, Tenn., has been awarded the contract to supply automatic shifter assemblies for Volkswagen Group of North America. The contract is SL America's first with Volkswagen. The company will supply the automatic shifters for both the midsize sedan VW will assemble in Chattanooga as well as for vehicles the German automaker assembles in Puebla, Mexico. SL America produces gearshift systems, pedal assemblies and exterior lighting for several major automotive manufacturers, including Hyundai and GM. The South Korean firm is expected to invest $35 million as a result of the new contract and hire 300 more workers that will be housed in a 100,000-square-foot addition to its current facility.

Confluence Solar Developing $200 Million Plant in Clinton, Tenn.

In late January, Missouri-based Confluence Solar announced that it will build a 200,000-square-foot plant at the I-75 Industrial Park in Clinton, Tenn. The $200 million facility will produce mono-crystal silicon ingots for photovoltaic solar power generation. The ingots are used in solar panels to generate electricity. John DeLuca, a co-founder of Confluence Solar and a former employee at the U.S. Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said that Clinton's proximity to the lab and to the new stimulus-funded Solar Institute at the University of Tennessee was a factor in choosing the site in northeast Tennessee. The deal is expected to create 250 new jobs.

Parkdale Mills Expanding in South Carolina

Parkdale Mills announced in the winter quarter that it will expand its manufacturing plant in Edgefield County, S.C. The $3 million investment is expected to create 16 new jobs. Parkdale, a privately-owned company, has been a producer and supplier of spun yarn for nearly a century.

North Carolina Company Locating in Oklahoma

Flanders Corporation of Washington, N.C., has purchased the former Best Buy building located in the New Horizons Industrial Park in Ardmore, Okla. Flanders designs, manufactures and markets air filters that contain airborne contaminants. The deal is expected to create 250 new jobs.

Level 3 Inspection Expands in Martin County, Fla.

Level 3 Inspection, which performs 3D White Light Scanning (WLS) and Computer Aided Inspection (CAI) services for the highest precision manufactured products and production tooling, is expanding in Martin County, Fla. The company is adding 33 new employees at its new lab space in the Sawgrass Business Center in Stuart.

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