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[flith]

Announcement Thursday February, 26 at Lee College.


It is believed to be unrelated to VW in Chattanooga.

[HABANERO7]

The official announcement came this morning at the Dixon Center on the Lee University Campus just north of Downtown Cleveland. The project has been in the works for over 4 years and has more to do with being located beside Arch and Olin Chemical than anything to do with Volkswagen. It seems to be a nice coincidence that two German manufactures decided to move into southeast Tennessee independent of each other each sporting 1 billion dollar facilities within 7 months time.

Below are some interesting stats and quotes from The Cleveland Daily banner

• The facility will locate just off I-75 at exit 33 Charleston Tennessee. The facility will be located to the north east of the interchange off of lauderdale Memorial Hwy and close to Olin Chemical.

• The name of the company is Wacker Chemie AG pronounced (VAH'-kah) Chemie (shay-MEE')

• The totals include a $1,000,000,000 investment in infrastructure

• The Wacker Polysilicon Division of Wacker Chemie AG is currently the world's second largest producer of hyperpure polycrystalline silicon

• The total amount in jobs projected after the 1st phase is up in running at full capacity is 500-600

• The average projected salary for all employees is around $41,600

• The product produced will be hyperpure polycrystalline silicon which is a key component in the production of semiconductors and photovoltaic solar panels

Here is a quote from John McIntosh, president of Olin Chlor Alkali Products Division that operates a chlor-alkali plant in Charleston adjacent to the Wacker Chemie AG site

"On behalf of nearly 500 Olin employees in Bradley County, I want everyone in the community to know how excited we are to be associated with this important project," said John McIntosh, "We anticipate a long, productive relationship as we work together to further the strong local business climate."


Needless to say, this is huge for Bradley County Tennessee and all of Southeast Tennessee. With this announcement and the recent announcement of Volkswagen just 24 miles south on I-75 there is much to be excited about when wondering about the future economic climate of this region.

Edited by HABANERO7, 26 February 2009 - 04:29 PM.

[Hankster]

Terrific news for Cleveland and SE Tennessee!  We're talking about lots of really good, high paying jobs, and the area will really benefit.  I guess Germany has really discovered this area as a great place to do business.

[flith]

Wacker is adding a second plant to produce polysilicon.  It will be $1.1-$1.4 billion, and create 500-650 additional jobs.

[flith]

The Chattanoogan.com was wrong. It's a $500 mil expansion of the existing plans with around 150 more jobs.