Tire Business staff report
JACKSON, Miss. (April 26, 2013) — The Mississippi Legislature overwhelming approved a package of economic incentives today, worth a reported $130 million, to help pave the way for Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. to go ahead with plans to build a $300 million truck tire plant in West Point, Miss.
The project will result initially in 500 jobs, according to Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who oversaw efforts to attract Yokohama to the state and who called the state legislature into extraordinary session to consider the incentives package.
The project potentially could mean up to 2,000 jobs longer term, Mr. Bryant said, and will have a positive impact on the state's economy for years to come. Yokohama said the plant's capacity would be 1 million units a year in the first phase and up to 4 million longer-term.
Should YRC exercise its options to expand the plant accordingly, the investment over time could exceed $1 billion, local politicans were quoted as saying.
The House voted 117-2 and the Senate unanimously to approve the measure, according to local media. The package covered amendments to a 14 sections of the Mississippi Code of 1972.
Mr. Bryant called the vote an "historic day for Mississippi" and said details of the package would be made public at a press conference in West Point on April 29, but local daily and business media already have published some specifics, including: $9.5 million to purchase land near West Point for the plant; $48 million for infrastructure investments; and nearly $12 for a training center.
Mr. Bryant publicly thanked Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and the Mississippi State Legislature for passing the proposed incentive package.
Other provisions included in the package were: income tax exemption for up to 25 years, providing Yokohama creates and maintains at least 1,000 jobs for 10 years; sales tax exemptions for machinery, equipment, tooling, etc. used in manufacturing; restrictions on the ability of a municipality to change its boundaries to incorporate an industrial site not currently within those boundaries; etc.
The plant will be the second in Mississippi. Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has a plant in Tupelo, where it makes passenger tires with about 1,400 non-union employees.
That plant recently marked a safety milestone, chalking up 2 million employee hours worked without a lost-time injury.