Alabama: Welcoming in Big Business (cover)
The Selling Point
High-Tech Training Key To Northern Alabama
Growing From Within
Existing Industries Expand In
Central Alabama
Alabama State Docks Get Face Lift
Southern Alabama Gains More Than IPSCO
Request Information
Welcoming in Big Business
|
Business location announcements from such |
Develop a can-do attitude, and the big investments will come. And come they have -- Boeing, Mercedes-Benz, Trico Steel and, most recently, IPSCO Steel.
In December 1998, Regina, Saskatchewan-based IPSCO's steelmaking subsidiary, IPSCO Steel, selected Mobile County as the site for its new US$425 million steelworks facility. The mini-mill will primarily serve the U.S. Gulf states, which have had the nation's highest growth rate in steel consumption in recent years, and it will employ approximately 450 people. Each year, the plant is expected to produce 1.25 million tons (1.1 million m. tons) of plate and coiled steel. Among the many reasons IPSCO cited for choosing the Mobile site were availability of a highly skilled work force, competitive electrical rates and good transportation logistics. "We were highly impressed by the attitude of both the people in the Alabama business community and in government that we had dealings with. The state is certainly open for business," noted Roger Phillips, chairman and CEO of IPSCO, at the mini-mill announcement. Then Gov.-elect Don Seigelman was integral in the company's decision to build in Mobile, he added. |
"This project represents the best of cooperation and partnership between the public sector and the private sector," says Jim Apple, vice president of economic development at the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. To better accommodate the new mini-mill, for example, The Alabama State Docks will build a $3 million pier on the Mobile River, which fronts the east side of the site, to handle the large barges bringing in raw materials and transporting product from the mill, says Jack Ravan, director of The Docks.
©1999 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. Data is from many sources and not warranted to be accurate or current.