TW-Fitting N.A. L.L.C., a Group Michelin/Continental A.G. joint venture, is setting up a plant in Vance to supply Mercedes-Benz of America Inc. with mounted tire/wheel assemblies.
TW-Fitting is a unit of Eurofitting, a Belgian subsidiary of Michelin Continental Projects, a 50-50 Michelin-Continental joint venture. This is the first North American plant for Eurofitting, which operates several tire/wheel assembly plants in Europe.
The new company will occupy half of a $10 million, 100,000-sq.-ft. plant under construction in the Legacy Industrial Campus in rural Tuscaloosa County near Vance. The facility is close to the Mercedes plant where the M-class sport-utility vehicle is assembled. Mercedes is doubling production capacity at the Vance plant to 160,000 vehicles annually.
The TW-Fitting operation will create 35 jobs initially, according to the Tuscaloosa Industrial Development Authority, which has approved tax abatements for the project totaling $435,581. Plant construction should be completed by September, the authority said.