April 15, 2006

New Deepwater Port Slated for North Carolina

The first new deep sea port in the South in decades looks to be underway as North Carolina's Council of State approved the North Carolina State Port Authority's purchase of a 600-acre tract on the west bank of the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County, N.C. The land in Southeast North Carolina is adjacent to Progress Energy's Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant. That will be the site of the Port Authority's new North Carolina International Port (NCIP). Early projections show that the new port would create about 50,000 jobs, with about 2,000 directly at the port. The new port is expected to have the capacity for 2 million containers a year. Early estimates show that the port could be operational in eight years.

Rust Belt Auto Execs Eye New Nissan Jobs in Nashville

The first major automaker to move its North American headquarters to the Southern Auto Corridor is gaining attention from white-collar executives in the still automotive rich Rust Belt area that have either lost their positions or are expected to. As of April 1, Nissan had received over 15,000 resumes for the 700 or 800 positions it expects to create when it relocates its headquarters from Southern California to Nashville. Nissan expects about 600 workers to relocate with the company to mid-Tennessee. A report in Automotive News showed that many of those resumes are coming from executives who worked or currently work for GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler in the Detroit area.

Chinese Company Adding 1,000 New Jobs in South Carolina

China-based Haier is expanding its Kershaw County, S.C. facilities, a deal that is expected to result in a $150 million investment and about 1,000 new jobs. Currently about 200 employees work at the plant in Camden, which in 1999 represented the first and largest Chinese manufacturing facility in the U.S. The company will build appliances used to freeze and cool food and beverage products.

National Nanotechnology Manufacturing Center Celebrates Groundbreaking in Rural Georgia

The groundbreaking for the National Nanotechnology Manufacturing Center (NNMC) was held recently in rural Swainsboro, Ga. The center, located at the Pathway Technology Park, is a joint venture between the Joint Development Authority in Swainsboro, the U.S. Army's Picatinny Arsenal and Georgia's nanoFAB. Georgia Tech Research Institute and other major U.S. universities will be sources of technology projects with the Center serving as a clearing house for Georgia nanoFAB's scale up and manufacturing. The NNMC will function as a public-private partnership by manufacturing nano and microscale products for both military and commercial use.

Second Lowndes County, Miss. Site Certified by TVA

TVA announced on April 12 that an 1800-acre site in Lowndes County, Miss. (Columbus), has been certified by McCallum Sweeney Consulting of Greenville, S.C., as a "megasite," or large industrial property suitable for a major automotive manufacturing plant. The site, known as Crossroads, is the second site to be certified in Lowndes County. SeverCorr, a steel maker, has begun construction on a $880 million, 1.2-million-square-foot facility on the first megasite in the county.

South's Largest Market Second in Gross Regional Product

A study done by the Greater Washington Initiative showed that in 2005 the gross regional product of the Baltimore/Washington/Northern Virginia region totaled $246.8 billion. The total ranked second in the world in GRP for metro areas, with only Tokyo generating more at $335.1 billion in 2005.

Drug Maker Chooses Durham, N.C. for Research and Manufacturing Center

United Therapeutics will build a research and manufacturing center in Durham, N.C., investing $54.3 million and creating 160 new jobs. The company, which develops treatments for heart problems, infectious diseases and cancer, will put the 125,000-square-foot facility in Research Triangle Park.

Financial Services Firm Announces New Campus in Greenville, S.C.

The South Financial Group, a multi-bank holding company with assets totaling $14.3 billion, announced it is building a new corporate headquarters campus in Greenville, S.C. The company's new investment will be more than $100 million and will create 600 jobs paying about twice the South Carolina per capita income average.

French Roofing Manufacturer Announces Plant on Mississippi Gulf Coast

SOPREMA, a Strasbourg, France-based producer of roofing and waterproofing material, is building a new plant in Harrison County, Miss. Harrison County is one of the three counties on the Mississippi Gulf Coast hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. The company plans to invest about $15 million in the plant and hire about 50 workers. The facility is the second for SOPREMA in the U.S.

CuraScript Expanding in Orlando

Orlando-based CuraScript, a national pharmaceutical distributor, announced recently it is building a new $12.4 million, 65,000-square-foot customer service facility that will serve as a call center, management office and distribution hub near the Orlando International Airport. The project will create 350 jobs, bringing employment at the company to over 1,000 in the Orlando area.

Kia Delays Georgia Plant Groundbreaking

Bribery allegations in Korea involving Hyundai and Kia officials and one of their major vendors apparently is behind the automakers' decision to delay the official groundbreaking of the Southern Auto Corridor's latest assembly plant. Kia announced in March that it will locate a huge assembly facility near LaGrange, Ga. A visit to Korea by a contingent of economic development officials from Alabama during the week of April 3 was also cancelled at the request of the Korean automakers' officials. Hyundai operates an assembly plant in Montgomery, Ala., and over 40 Korean parts suppliers also are located in Alabama. Korean prosecutors allege that Hyundai has created millions in slush funds to bribe government officials, apparently in Korea, for construction permit approvals. In a report published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on April 5, 2006, Hyundai and Kia officials have assured Georgia economic developers that the delay in the groundbreaking does not mean a delay in the project.

Alabama is the South's Biggest Loser in Delphi Closures

Luck, skill and some timely investments have helped Alabama lead the Southern Auto Corridor in growth over the last decade. Most of that growth has come from foreign automakers and their suppliers -- both foreign and domestic -- that have set up shop in the state. Yet, Alabama was anything but lucky at the beginning of April when Michigan-based Delphi Corp. announced it will sell or close three plants in the state. The plant closures in Gadsden, Tuscaloosa and Athens, Ala., will mean about 2,600 automotive workers will lose their jobs, or about six percent of the state's automotive industry employment. While Ohio is expected to lose six Delphi facilities and Michigan four, Alabama's loss of three plants is a significant blow to what has been the South's most active automotive state.

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