The news is in. Mobile is poised for one of the strongest hiring booms in the country – named as the 8th top city in expected employment growth, according to a survey by global staffing firm Manpower Inc. Below is just a sample of the stories illustrating Mobile County’s record-setting growth.
ThyssenKrupp announces $4 billion operation
German-steel maker, ThyssenKrupp selected the Mobile area and Alabama as the home for its state-of-the-art steel and stainless steel processing facility. The plant will serve industries including automotive, construction, electrical and utility, in addition to serving manufacturers of appliances, precision machinery and engineered products.
Approximately 29,000 jobs will be generated during the construction phase. When fully operational, the plant will employ 2,700 people. Average annual wages are estimated between $50,000 to $60,000. Over a 20-year period, the facility is also expected to yield 30,000 to 52,000 indirect jobs.
The facility will be located in Mount Vernon in northern Mobile and southern Washington counties. The site will be approximately 3,500 acres, 7 million-square-feet-under roof. The new plant complex is scheduled to begin operations in 2010, and is one of the largest private industrial development projects in the United States.
The facility is a cooperative effort between ThyssenKrupp Steel and ThyssenKrupp Stainless. The ThyssenKrupp Group, based in Düsseldorf, Germany, is a global technology company, consisting of five business segments – steel, stainless, technologies, elevator and services. The company reports annual sales of approximately €47 billion (U.S. $61 billion) and employs 188,000 employees in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Record set by Alabama State Docks expansion
Mobile's Alabama State Docks is currently undergoing the largest expansion in its history by expanding its container processing and storage facility and increasing container storage at the docks by over 1,000%.
The Alabama State Port Authority is building a $115 million terminal that will be used to offload ThyssenKrupp's Brazilian-made slabs on Pinto Island. From there, about 13,000 tons a day, or 10 barges' worth, will be shipped upriver to the plant. Operations at the terminal are expected to begin in early 2008 and create 300 permanent jobs.
The terminal is an integral piece of the $811 million incentives package that brought ThyssenKrupp to Alabama. Lyons said it will lift slabs from ocean-going ships using giant magnets, then place them on barges that can navigate the 45-mile trip to Calvert.
Mobile wins race nations largest military contract
Mobile won the race for the nations largest military contract today when EADS North America chose Mobile as the place for its $200+ billion tanker aircraft project – generating over 5,000 high paying jobs.
Airbus parent company EADS recently announced its choice of a site in Alabama to build a new refueling plane for the US military, as part of its bid to win the USAF's $23.5 billion contract to supply the next generation of air-air refueling aircraft. EADS said the Brookley Industrial Complex in Mobile, AL had beaten off competition from Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina as part of a very competitive process to host the "KC-330 Advanced Tanker" production facility.
