Trelleborg in line for S.C. tax breaks, job credits

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (May 8, 2014) — Sweden's Trelleborg A.B. will be getting some tax breaks and “job development credits” from the state of South Carolina and Spartanburg County for the agricultural tire plant it plans to build near Spartanburg, but the value of these incentives will depend on the extent and speed of the project, officials said.

Trelleborg announced plans May 6 to invest $50 million through 2018 to build and equip a 430,000-sq.-ft. plant to make agricultural tires.

The plant will be built on the site of an existing Trelleborg coated fabrics plant, whose capacity is being transferred to other Trelleborg plants in Rutherfordton, N.C., and Morristown, Tenn.

The Spartanburg plant was built originally by the former Reeves Brothers Inc., which Trelleborg acquired in October 2006.

Trelleborg did not say what relocating this production will cost, but it did say it will have to expand the Spartanburg structure physically to accommodate tire production.

Regarding state aid, the South Carolina Department of Commerce said the job development credits for which Trelleborg is eligible are “discretionary, performance-based” incentives that rebate a portion of new employees' withholding taxes once a company creates the positions they have committed to create.

The state's Coordinating Council for Economic Development will oversee these credits.

At the county level, Trelleborg will receive offsets to property taxes, the value of which will depend on the final value of the project and how quickly it ramps up, according to R. Carter Smith, executive vice president of Economic Futures Group, the county's economic development organization.