Aluminum Plant To Expand Capacity With $27 Million Investment

Alcan Rolled Products-Ravenswood has announced it will spend $27 million to increase its aluminum plate making capacity after mid-2006. The increased production will mean more jobs, but company officials declined to say how many. The company will hire more operators in the first quarter of 2006. About 1,100 people work at the 50-year-old plant, which is Jackson County’s largest employer. The plant has added 150 employees in the past year.

The money will be used to bring in new equipment for workers to handle increased orders from the company’s aerospace customers. Workers at the facility supply the materials for wings and other structural airplane components.

The company landed a five-year contract with Boeing Co. at the end of October. Ravenswood workers will make lightweight aluminum products mainly for the company’s 737 and 777 commercial planes. The company also has contracts with most major airplane manufacturers, including Airbus, Jacques said.

Workers at the plant produce aluminum plates, coils and sheet products for the aerospace, aeronautical and transportation industries.

Italian Manufacturer To Invest $20 Million In New Facility

The Esseco Group will invest as much as $20 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing site at the Bayer CropScience Institute Site Manufacturing Industrial Park in Kanawha County, creating as many as 30 new jobs. The Italian company manufactures sulfur-based chemicals (sulfites in crystal and liquid form), processing aids for wine-making and sulfur for industry and agriculture.

During the upcoming months, Esseco and Bayer CropScience engineers will work with contractors to develop the detailed design for the facility, with costs expected to range from $15 million to $20 million, and secure the necessary environmental permits. Pending the successful completion of these activities, construction may begin as early as spring 2006, with operations beginning in early 2007.

The plant, to occupy about nine acres at the Institute site, will produce sodium metabisulfite, sodium sulfite and sodium bisulfite solution, which are used in many industries such as water treatment, food preservatives, gas cleaning in power stations as well as in the manufacture of chemicals, photo processing, surfactants and pharmaceuticals.