John D. Boyd | May 03, 2011 2:32PM EDT
A Japanese manufacturer of large-scale power transformers will build a new factory at a Memphis, Tenn., site that will use Canadian National Railway tracks, access to Mississippi River barging and trucking to move goods in and out.
Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, based in Warrendale, Pa., will break ground May 10 on a $200 million, 350,000-square-foot factory at the Rivergate Industrial Park. It should begin production at the 100-acre site in April 2013 with 90 workers, the company said, and the factory will eventually employ about 275.
The company is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Mitsubishi Electric. The Memphis plant will build transformers for the North American market, which it now serves with units sent as project ocean shipments from Japan, as the U.S. tries to modernize its energy grid.
Those transformers can weigh over 400 tons, and Mitsubishi said it chose Memphis partly for "a strong logistics infrastructure" needed to bring in factory materials and carry out the heavy equipment built there.
Local reports said the site decision came in February after the city, Hamilton County and Tennessee came up with a package of tax incentives to woo Mitsubishi. Site development plans reportedly include a rail line extension.
-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @jboydjoc.
