Mich. auto parts company plans to reopen shuttered Ind. plant, invest $9M, close Ohio factory

Mich. company to open Ind. plant, close Ohio plant

HUNTINGTON, Ind. — A Michigan auto parts company announced plans Wednesday to move into a closed factory in northeast Indiana as it shuts down a plant in Ohio, where it has complained about costs over environmental regulations.

Continental Structural Plastics will spend about $9 million on upgrades to the Huntington factory and have up to 350 workers there by 2012, company vice president Thomas Hilborn said during a visit to the city.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels used the announcement to highlight the state’s push to attract jobs as it apparently took advantage of Continental’s dispute with Ohio regulators.

“Days like today remind us that Indiana’s cost of doing business, fiscal stability and superior work force have given us one of the best competitive advantages in the country,” the Republican said.

Troy, Mich.-based Continental said in a required layoff notice filed in Ohio that it intended to close its North Baltimore factory in October and lay off all 214 workers.

Earlier this year, Continental officials said they were considering a move to Indiana because an Ohio environmental regulation requires it to use a machine to reduces pollution that costs $500,000 a year to operate. The company said the machine was no longer needed to meet air standards and Indiana was being considered because it didn’t have the same rule.

But Ohio’s governor and a local lawmaker were skeptical about the role that the environmental regulation played in the company’s decision.

The company never responded to the state’s efforts to resolve the environmental issue and “it appears to be little more than an excuse to justify their plant closing,” said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s spokeswoman, Kelly Schlissberg.

“There is no way that Continental Plastics has decided to close because of the environmental rule. That was going to be resolved,” said Rep. Randy Gardner, a Republican from northwestern Ohio. He said there “are other issues at play here” but didn’t elaborate.

Indiana offered the company up to $2.4 million in tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on its job creation plans. The Huntington City Council is expected to offer to phase in the plant’s property taxes.

Hilborn, Continental’s vice president, said Indiana provided the “right business environment” for the manufacturing operation to be successful.

The Huntington factory has been empty since Allen Park, Mich.-based Meridian Automotive Systems shut it down two years ago, eliminating 186 jobs.

“We knew we were competing with Ohio and the governor there,” said Mark Wickersham, executive director of the Huntington County United Economic Development Corp. “We just put our best foot forward.”

The Huntington factory will make parts for the automotive industry as well for heavy trucks, construction, heating and cooling, water management and other industries.

The company’s announcement was welcomed in the county just southwest of Fort Wayne, where the unemployment rate was 11 percent for June, slightly higher than the statewide 10.1 percent jobless rate.

“They’re planning for the first phase to be up in September and the second phase to be running by the end of the year,” Wickersham said.