CLARION LEDGER
By Jack Mazurak
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
NEW PLANT A BOON TO MISSISSIPPI AREA
Landing a $300 million titanium production facility in northeast Mississippi took the same formula the state has used many times to woo industry: available work force plus low utility rates and teamwork between governments and agencies.
But the state's latest large-scale economic announcement began with two companies hunting for ways to expand their businesses.
Ohio-based RTI International Metals said Tuesday it will start building a Monroe County facility late this year. The plant is scheduled to open in 2010. It will bring in up to 800 construction jobs for a year or more and will employ 200 people at salaries up to $40,000 once production begins.
Anticipating several billion dollars in contracts this year, the company set out to become a titanium sponge producer. ...
"To support these contracts, we needed to secure a source of the raw material. Second, building our own facility allows us to control the cost of manufacturing," said Dawne Hickton, RTI vice chairwoman and chief executive officer.
The plant will refine titanium tetrachloride piped from its neighbor, Tronox Inc., a longtime business in the Monroe County town of Hamilton, about 20 miles north of Columbus. The resulting titanium sponge will be hauled to RTI melting and rolling facilities in Ohio and processed into sheets and billets for aviation use. ...
"It was the perfect opportunity to have a new business that extracts greater value from our plant," Tronox spokeswoman Debbie Schramm said.
Gov. Haley Barbour, the Mississippi Development Authority, Monroe County, Three Rivers Planning and Development District and the Tennessee Valley Authority began courting RTI in January. They put together an incentive package RTI said is worth more than $30 million. ...
RTI got its titanium contracts - a $2 billion extension in May to supply Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and a $1.1 billion, 11-year deal announced Tuesday with French commercial aviation giant Airbus. So the new plant was a go.
"There's a true attraction to utility cost and work force here. And with Tronox, you've got a world-class producer of (titanium tetrachloride). So that learning curve for RTI is already in place. Existing industry is your key here," Monroe County Chamber of Commerce President Stephen Surles said. ...
Randy Kelley, Three Rivers executive director, said Itawamba Community College will provide employee training and help with RTI's application selection process. ...
The titanium plant adds to an explosion of aeronautic, metal production and technology companies in northeast Mississippi over the past three years.
The SeverCorr steel mill in Columbus will be in full operation this fall, and more steel processors are expected. American Eurocopter and Aurora Flight Sciences both expanded recently, Toyota this summer announced two suppliers for its Tupelo plant, and truckmaker PACCAR started construction of a $400 million engine facility.
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