Three companies are collaborating on a $40 million factory in Madison to supply needed steel components for auto manufacturers.
Madison Metal Processing will begin later this year supplying steel blanks - the precursor for automotive surface body parties - for Mazda Toyota Manufacturing in Huntsville, as well as other automotive suppliers.
The factory will hire about 40 and will operate out of an 110,000-square-foot facility. Full production is planned for the middle of next year. It is a project of Toyota Tsusho America Inc., Southern Mobility Products and SteelSummit Holdings, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp. of Americas.
As a full-service steel processing service center, MMP will specialize in blanking and warehousing steel products including hot rolled steel, cold rolled steel, and exposed and coated steel products. The company estimates it will eventually process as much as 5,000 tons of steel a month onsite.
In a statement, Gov. Kay Ivey called the project “another exciting development in the growth of the robust supplier network emerging in North Alabama to support the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing auto assembly facility.”
In June, Mazda Toyota announced the $2.3 billion plant will produce the Toyota Corolla Cross. A Mazda vehicle to be manufactured at the Huntsville plant will be announced later this year, with the plant reaching 4,000 employees once production is in full operation next year, the company announced today.
SteelSummit has a 36-year history in the U.S. steel industry and Toyota Tsusho’s has six decades of operation in North America.