JACKSON- A group of production suppliers for Nissan North America Inc.'s assembly plant in Madison County will invest $100 million in Mississippi and create 1,000 jobs.
The second round of production suppliers for the plant were announced Thursday by Nissan. Four production plants, a supplier logistics center and a transportation terminal will be built in central Mississippi to support its $930 million facility under construction near Canton.
The 2-million-square-foot Nissan plant is scheduled to open in the summer of 2003 and eventually employ 4,000 people.
"These suppliers are the building blocks for what we expect to be the most productive auto plant in North America," Emil Hassan, a Nissan senior vice president, told a gathering of business and political leaders at the state Capitol.
Nissan announced a year ago that it had chosen Mississippi for its latest assembly plant, which will produce the Japanese automaker's first full-size pickup truck and a new minivan and larger sport utility vehicle.
The company named its first suppliers in July. Combined with those announced Thursday, the firms are expected to invest nearly $225 million in Mississippi and hire 2,000 people.The newest suppliers are:
- M-TEK Inc. of Manchester, Tenn., which will build a 219,000-square-foot plant in Madison County's Central Mississippi Industrial Center to provide interior trim components.
- TKA Fabco of Windsor, Canada, which will supply body stampings and assemblies. TKA has not yet chosen its plant site.
- Unipres U.S.A. Inc. of Portland, Tenn., which also will supply body stampings from a 150,000-square-foot plant it plans to build in Forest.
- Yorozu America Inc. of Morrison, Tenn., which will supply suspension components from an 80,000-square-foot plant it will build in Vicksburg.
In addition, a yet-to-be-named joint venture will build a 200,000-square-foot supplier logistics center on the Nissan site. Nissan officials said the majority owner will be a Mississippi-based, minority-owned company.
Another joint venture will supply transportation services for the plant. AJA SouthStar Transport will deliver parts to Canton from Nissan plants in Tennessee. It also will provide transportation services for some of the suppliers and other shippers in Canton. AJA SouthStar will have a 6,000-square-foot office and a 10-acre paved lot in the Central Mississippi Industrial Center. The company is jointly owned by Jackson businessman Andrew Jenkins, president and chief executive of AJA Management & Technical Services Inc., and Beth Franklin, president and CEO of Star Transportation Inc. in Nashville, Tenn.
AJA Management & Technical Services is a minority-owned business.
"We're proud to be a part of Nissan's continuing opportunity to reach out to small minority firms," Jenkins said.
Nissan officials have said the automaker will use the latest in manufacturing systems that will allow components to reach the assembly line as they're needed.
Some parts will travel by conveyer from suppliers within a couple of miles of the E-shaped plant.
The Canton plant will employ 3,300 workers to start - 89 of whom are already on the payroll. Another 126 are in pre-employment training.
Nissan has said the bulk of the jobs will be production-related and start at $13.25 an hour.
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