"This project will only eat up U.S. tax dollars and add unneeded domestic capacity," said United Steelworkers International vice president Tom Conway in Pittsburgh.
The plant, set to open in 2010, would employ as many as 2,700 workers when fully operational and create as many as 38,000 related jobs ranging from suppliers to transportation to dining and entertainment, the company said. It will be located along the Tombigbee River, a site about 25 miles north of Mobile that offers a river route to the Gulf of Mexico and is near rails and interstate highways. The steel company was lured by tax breaks and a $400 million incentives package approved by the state legislature.
Alabama's proposal also was endorsed by governors and U.S. senators in neighboring Mississippi and Florida, with potential workers living near the plant site.
Louisiana also had offered a similar package of incentives for a site in St. James Parish along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. ThyssenKrupp officials had visited the former Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrows Point, now owned by Mittal Steel, but eventually decided to build a new plant elsewhere.
The Alabama plant would be ThyssenKrupp's first steelmaking operation in the United States. It would be "an integral part of the company's plan to increase growth in the steel and stainless steel division in North America and Europe," supervisory board chairman Ekkehard Schulz said. Initially, the company had said the project would cost about $2.
9 billion, but it raised the amount because "higher capacities and extended plant configurations were shown to be feasible and economic." In a statement, Bob Soulliere, president and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Steel and Stainless USA, said factors in choosing Alabama included "logistical considerations of the company's supply chain from Brazil to our projected customers; operating costs such as electricity and labor; and site specific capital expenditures.
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