Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has announced that Hyundai Heavy Industries will locate its first U.S. plant in Montgomery, bringing 500 jobs.
The $90 million Hyundai Electrical Systems Alabama Inc. plant, which will be 220,000-square-feet on 100 acres in Montgomery’s Interstate Industrial Park, is one of two economic development announcements state officials are making this month.
Hyundai Electrical System’s Alabama plant will make large power transformers. A ground breaking is expected to take place later this month, with construction complete by the end of 2011 and production beginning in early 2012, Riley’s office said in a news release.
Hyundai Heavy Industries was founded in 1972 and is a global business network operating in six business divisions: shipbuilding, offshore and engineering, industrial plant and engineering, engine and machinery, construction equipment and electro electric systems.
Montgomery was a finalist for the plant among several cities in four Southern states. The state came up with “a competitive incentive package” to lure the firm to Alabama, but did not release details.
Neal Wade, director of Alabama Development Office, also told the Birmingham Business Journal in a phone interview from France that a deal is being worked out to recruit an aerospace company to Huntsville, which would bring 300 more jobs to north Alabama. Gov. Bob Riley joined Wade at the Farnborough International Airshow outside of London on Sunday to meet for two days with the aerospace company to negotiate a deal, Wade said.
Wade is currently in France meeting with EADS officials to discuss training programs for workers in Mobile if EADS secures the long-sought-after U.S. Air Force tanker contract. EADS is battling Boeing and an investor group for a $40 billion contract to build the KC-45 tanker at a Mobile industrial park.
