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LISTEN: Foreign Auto Part Maker Bringing New Life to Old U.S. Steel Mill
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Last week, Taiwanese auto supplier Minth announced plans to invest some $430 million to breathe new life into a century-old steel mill site in Alabama.
The Minth Group is a massive company with nearly 28,000 global employees spanning 78 plants, making trim and structural automotive parts. The company says it is the largest supplier of battery enclosures and body structure components in the world, making parts for more than 80 automotive brands, including Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Jeep, and Lucid.
The Minth Group bought the former Republic Steel 400-acre brownfield site in Gadsden, Alabama, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham.
The project will become Minth's largest campus and is expected to create 1,325 jobs. Initially, the plant should bring a few hundred jobs, but new roles will be added as operations grow. The facility will produce plastic and aluminum components for Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, and for Kia in West Point, Georgia.
Minth said the new location will help serve North American customers, including those transitioning to electric and advanced vehicles.
Minth’s U.S. operations are part of Minth North America, with regional headquarters in Wixom, Michigan, and two other locations in Michigan and Tennessee.
The Gadsden site is expected to be a flagship U.S. facility with nearly 1 million square feet of manufacturing space. The company plans to renovate and expand the site. The new jobs will average $49,000 in annual wages.
When the steel plant shuttered in August 2000, some 1,800 workers lost their jobs. The Gulf States Steel plant had been in operation since 1903 and was acquired by Republic Steel in 1937.
In a statement, William Chin, the son of Minth’s founder and the company’s chief strategy officer, said, “From rubble to renewal, from depression to prosperity – this site, once a reminder of jobs that moved overseas, now represents a bright future ... It’s not rubber and steel anymore; it’s plastic and aluminum.”
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