By Associated Press
Mobile, AL – German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp (TISS-en-krup) chose Alabama over Louisiana for its three-point-seven (b) billion dollar steel plant - the first large-scale project of its kind in the United States in decades.
Set to open in 2010, the plant will employ as many as 27-hundred workers when fully operational.
The site is near Mount Vernon in the Calvert community on the Tombigbee River, some 25 miles north of Mobile. It's on a river route to the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile's rails and interstates.
At a Montgomery news conference Friday with ThyssenKrupp officials, Governor Bob Riley said its the largest economic development project in the history of this state and for ThyssenKrupp.
ThyssenKrupp was lured by several tax breaks and a 400 (m) million dollar incentives package approved by the Legislature.
An Alabama Power official said the plant would be the utility's largest customer. It's expected to require 300 megawatts of electricity, comparable to an amount generated by a mid-sized power plant.
The company said that once the plant could create as many as 38-thousand new jobs related to the mill, from suppliers to transportation to dining and entertainment.
The Alabama plant will have an annual capacity of 4-point-1 (m) million metric tons of carbon steel end products.
ThyssenKrupp's supervisory board announced its selection this morning in Germany. The company then said the investment in the plant would be 3-point-1 (B) billion euros, which converts to nearly 4-point-2 billion.
Vice president of public affairs Christian Koenig said later news releases by the company that put the converted investment at 3-point-7 (b) billion were correct.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)