A crowd of state and local leaders gathered Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the groundbreaking of two new partners on the Severstal campus — Mississippi Steel Processing and New Process Steel.
The location of Mississippi Steel Processing and New Process Steel — two companies to provide “downstream service to Severstal customers” — will “create jobs (and) increase the vitality of the Golden Triangle” region, Severstal Columbus CEO Jim Hrusovsky said, referring to the companies as additions to “further strengthen” Severstal”s “position as the premier steelmaker in the United States.”
The arrival of the companies demonstrates “the determination and spirit of Gov. Haley Barbour and his team to create jobs in the manufacturing sector,” Hrusovsky added, before Barbour addressed the crowd.
“We”re very proud of Severstal,” Barbour said, noting the arrival of the two companies means the creation of 120 new jobs, with average salaries of “nearly $50,000 a year.”
“This is good for the Golden Triangle, good for Mississippi,” he explained, noting Mississippi Steel Processing and New Process Steel represent about $25 million in new investments.
“Everything about this is very positive,” he added. “Mississippi is becoming more and more of a steel sector state. This has clearly become the center of steel for Mississippi and it won”t be long before it”s the center for the entire south.”
Barbour thanked the 550 employees of Severstal.
“As we try to expand Mississippi businesses and bring new business to Mississippi, the No. 1 attraction is our workforce,” he said. “People from all over the world come here and what they tell you is they love our work force.”
Barbour also thanked the residents of Columbus and Lowndes County, the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Mississippi Development Authority, among others.
“Job creation is a team sport and you shouldn”t ever forget it,” he said. “The legislators have been good to us, as well as the federal government. Regardless of (political) party, we do appreciate the support of the federal government.”
“This is a great day for this area, but it”s also a great day for the whole state of Mississippi,” Barbour concluded “Thank you for continuing to support job creation here.”
“Most of you know we”ve been at this project for a while,” Mississippi Steel Processing President Chip Gerber said, also crediting, among others, “community support,” Severstal, Link officials, and officials at two banks — BankFirst and Cadence Bank — as well as his business partner, Rich Merlo.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved with a world-class steel mill and we promise we”re going to put in a world-class processing (facility),” Merlo said. “We”re very humbled and we”re very excited about the future.”
“We know how much an industrial complex like the one being developed here can mean to the area,” said Bob Proch, president of New Process Steel, a 104-year-old privately held steel company with seven other facilities in the U.S.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President and District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders, thanking MDA, Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Lowndes County Industrial Authority and others, including George Crawford of the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District, for their efforts in ensuring the location of the two new companies in Lowndes County.
“You set the tone for the attitude of a business friendly state and region,” he said to Barbour.
“(Link CEO) Joe Max (Higgins) is the catalyst (for economic development),” he added. “Joe Max changed our attitude. Joe Max, I appreciate it. There are a lot of people who have fussed at you and you methods, (but) I don”t care.”
“Despite the economic downturn of the past two years, businesses can be created, expand and thrive, if they have the right cooperation,” Hrusovsky said, noting a planned Severstal expansion also will double the mill”s capacity and create 100 more jobs.
The addition of the campus partners has been a part of Severstal”s long-term vision, Hrusovsky earlier said.
Mississippi Steel Processing and New Process Steel are constructing facilities which will offer downstream services to Severstal Columbus” customers, as well as customers of other steel companies.
Both companies are building on the 1,400-acre Severstal Columbus campus; each downstream processor is expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2011.
Mississippi Steel Processing, which was incorporated in 2009, is a toll processor which will provide value-added services of leveling, slitting, storing, logistics and fabricating of flat-rolled steel products, Severstal officials said.
The 136,000-square-foot Mississippi Steel Processing facility will be expandable to 300,000 square feet, over the next five years, and the company ultimately will employ 35 from the local Lowndes County workforce, officials said.
New Process Steel will begin operations in a 66,000-square-foot facility, which can be expanded, and initially will employ about 30 from the local workforce.
At the completion of expected expansions by both companies over the next few years, Mississippi Steel Processing and New Process Steel will have the combined potential to employ 120 people.
The Severstal expansion likely will be completed in late 2011 or early 2012.
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