Raleigh
6/20/08
Gov. Mike Easley announced today that Reliance Industries USA Inc. plans to open its first North American manufacturing facility near Kinston. The company will create 204 jobs during the next five years and invest $215 million in a plant to manufacture a resin used in the production of plastic containers and specialty polyester yarns. A N.C. Job Development Investment Grant helped make the project possible.
“Today’s announcement is just one more signal that eastern North Carolina is ripe for growth and open for business,” said Easley. “We are turning the corner and now is the time to be even more aggressive.”
Reliance Industries USA plans to lease part of the Lenoir County DuPont facility formerly operated by Unifi. The new tenant plans to manufacture polyethylene terephthalate resin and specialty polyester yarns. The resin is a polymer that is commonly used to make containers for carbonated soft drinks, mineral waters, juices and packaged foods. While wages for the new workers will vary according to job responsibilities and title, the average annual wage will be $46,500, not including benefits. That is more than the Lenoir County yearly average of $27,040.
“Reliance chose Lenoir County over other locations because of the availability of an existing, adaptable facility, the area’s long history in the polyester industry, the available skilled workforce and training capabilities, proximity to customers, and state and local incentives which will help offset the high cost of establishing a major manufacturing facility,” said company President Thakur Sharma.
Other partners that assisted with this announcement include: the N.C. Department of Commerce; Lenoir County; N.C. Community College System; N.C. Department of Transportation; North Carolina’s Eastern Region; Progress Energy and CSX Corp.
The state’s Economic Investment Committee voted unanimously today to award a JDIG to the company to facilitate this project. This is the 78th JDIG award announced since Easley and the General Assembly started the program in 2002 and the eighth awarded this year. Under terms of the nine-year agreement, the N.C. Department of Commerce estimates the project will:
- Generate a cumulative gross product value of about $1.64 billion
- Produce a positive, cumulative net state revenue impact of $53.38 million.
For each year that the company meets the required performance targets, the state will provide a grant equal to 60 percent of the state personal income withholding taxes derived from the creation of new jobs. Should the company create the jobs called for under the agreement and sustain them for nine years, the agreement could yield as much as $2.22 million in maximum benefits for Reliance Industries USA.
Job Development Investment Grants are awarded only to new and expanding businesses and industrial projects whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and which would not be undertaken in North Carolina without the grant. Since the first grant was awarded in 2003, the program has been responsible for creating more than 28,000 jobs and $4 billion in investment in North Carolina. More than half of the grants to date have been awarded to help existing North Carolina business operations expand.
For more information about Reliance Industries, including job opportunities, visit ww.ril.com.