Officials: Tva policies kept plant from Lawrence County

MONTGOMERY – Industrial officials looked at a Lawrence County site for the $4.2 billion, 2,700-employee ThyssenKrupp steel plant, but TVA river access policies knocked the site from contention, officials said Friday.

Site selection experts from Cushman & Wakefield and Alabama Development Office Director Neal Wade confirmed Friday the Lawrence County site was an early possibility for the steel plant that will be built in southwest Alabama.

But those same officials said other factors would have knocked the Lawrence County site from contention in the next round, including its distance from the Gulf Coast.

“A lot had to do with the TVA; you factored in the available work force and other logistic issues,’’ said Cushman & Wakefield consulting partner Robert J. Hess. “We caught TVA in a time thing where you were going to have to get their policy changed,’’ Hess said. “We didn’t have confidence it could ship products in and out (from that site because of the policy).’’

Officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority couldn’t be reached for comment.

Wade said he wasn’t sure the Lawrence County site would have survived the initial round because of several factors. His belief was confirmed by ThyssenKrupp officials.

Peter Urban, vice chairman of the executive board of Thyssen-Krupp Steel, said the chosen site on the Alabama River in Mobile is closer to its customers and to the plant’s unfinished product that will have to be shipped from Brazil to be finished in Alabama.

A site on the Mississippi River in Louisiana was the company’s second choice but had Lawrence County been chosen, steel shipments would have been barged past both the Mobile County site and the Louisiana site to the site on the Tennessee River in north Alabama.

“If you’re going to look at it, it’s better being closer to the coast,’’ said Urban.

Dana Beyerle can be reached at (334) 264-6605 or dtb12345@aol.com.