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BASF marks milestones with expansion of Alabama catalytic converter plant
By Jerry Underwood
Made in Alabama
BASF has completed an investment project to expand production at its Alabama mobile catalyst manufacturing site, which has been in operation for more than four decades.
BASF said the Huntsville site expansion began 18 months ago and created 10 jobs. The company said the expansion enables it to continue creating emission control technologies for cleaner air while simultaneously helping the automotive industry grow.
"The Huntsville facility is our largest emissions catalyst manufacturing site in North America, and this expansion demonstrates our commitment to our business growth strategy,"said Ken Lane, president of BASF's Catalyst Division. "The additional capacity will meet the growing market demand and customer technology needs in the region."
An 80,000-square foot expansion at UTC Aerospace in Foley was quiet and mostly empty at its dedication on Thursday, but company officials said they don't expect it to stay that way long as it fills with some of the most sophisticated jet engines in the world and 260 new jobs helping prepare them for flight.
"There's a huge ramp rate coming for the A320 NEO program," said Mike Grondalski, vice president for UTC Aerospace Systems' aerostructures division. "There will be a lot of work coming very quickly."
UTC's plant in Foley has been operating since the '80s. Its specialties include building and installing components that wrap around jet engines - including inlet cowls, fan cowls and thrust reversers - and refurbishing those and other components for jets already in service. The plant does engine build-up work on all the engines installed on new planes built at the Airbus plant in Mobile, but also builds components used on other aircraft by manufactures in the United States and abroad.
Harnessing IT and the power of cyber means a quicker movie download from Netflix, pinpointing the exact arrival time of the city bus from your smartphone or accessing a faster WiFi connection anywhere in downtown Montgomery.
Technology effects everyone and permeates all aspects of a city. Making Montgomery an easier place to live, work and play is all just a matter of time, technology and partnership with our military neighbors, said Joe Greene, the vice president at Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.
It means moving toward becoming Mayor Todd Strange's vision of the next "Gig City" through the "smart city, smart base" initiative. It means making the process to becoming a small business or getting a drivers license quicker and smoother.