October 8, 2007 -- ThyssenKrupp AG’s new plant, which will be located in Mobile County, Ala., will produce stainless steel and export it through the Port of Mobile, the Mobile Press-Register reported.The $3.7 billion plant will be designed to produce up to 1 million tons of stainless steel per year. The German steelmaker will export a third of the product, about 340,000 tons, to its finishing plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
The new plant will also produce more than 4 million tons of carbon steel a year, which the Port of Mobile also hopes will pass through its docks.
Together, the stainless steel and carbon steel shipments could increase the port’s steel shipments tenfold to more than 6 million tons a year.
But to accommodate the shipments, the port would need additional warehouse space, officials said. The port currently ships about 3.5 million tons of cargo through its warehouses.
Additional space would add to the $115 million the port agreed to spend to construct a new terminal on Pinto Island. The terminal will allow ThyssenKrupp to import about 13,000 tons of Brazilian-made steel slabs, which will be transported to the new plant.
ThyssenKrupp won more than $811 million in state and local incentives when it chose to build its new plant in Alabama instead of a competing location in Louisiana.
The company hopes to open the plant in Calvert, Ala., along the Tombigbee River by 2010. The 3,500-acre site will employ 2,700 workers and operate 24 hours per day. In addition, plant layout will be sensitive to the environment.
Source: Gulf Shipper
