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Big steel mill would straddle Mobile-Washington county line
The German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG is expected to announce sometime this month whether it will build a $2.9 billion, 2,700-worker mill in south Alabama or south Louisiana. The plant would be on a 3,500-acre tract east of Highway 43 in the Calvert area, some 35 miles south of Jackson and about 50 miles south of Grove Hill. The construction of the mill is expected to employ some 29,000. That is an amazing number when one realizes that there are only a few over 28,000 people living in Clarke County and less than 18,500 in all of Washington County. In addition to the 2,700 direct jobs that the plant will provide, as many as 52,000 spinoff jobs could be created when the mill starts full production in 2010. Local officials are excited about the impact the plant would have on local economies. Washington County Probate Judge Charles Singleton said recently, "This German company is used to paying top wages. Spinoffs would be created and we are trying to position ourselves to host some of those spinoffs. It doesn't matter where the company is from as long as they treat their workers well." McIntosh Mayor Carroll Daughtery, talking of the plant a few months ago said it would be a great boom to the area. McIntosh is only about 10 miles north of Calvert. Jackson is also looking to benefit if the plant locates in Alabama. The south Clarke County city is about 35 miles up Highway 43 from the site. Mayor Richard Long calls it a "tremendous opportunity" and said the city would benefit from additional restaurants, motels and service businesses. The steel mill would manufacture and process carbon steel and stainless steel for automobiles and other manufacturing needs. It will include a hot strip mill to process slabs from the company's new steel mill in Brazil as well as a cold rolling and hotdip coating operation for the production of flat carbon steel end products. One of the drawbacks of the Alabama site is that steel coming in from Brazil would have to be offloaded from sea-going vessels and barged upriver to the plant site. The state has purchased much of Pinto Island at the mouth of the Mobile River to use as a staging point for the transfers. The Alabama Legislature increased the state's borrowing capacity by $400 million to help fund incentives for the plant earlier this year and voters will be called upon to approve the measure on June 5. The Alabama House of Representatives approved a number of other incentives last week and the Senate was expected to grant its approval this week.
Gov. Bob Riley has said that the increase in borrowing power and the other incentives would be used to solicit a variety of industrial projects, not just ThyssenKrupp.
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