UPDATED: Steel service firm to build 40-job plant in Jackson, Ala

Jackson Al--SET Enterprises said Monday that it would build a steel processing service center in Jackson, Ala., creating up to 40 jobs.
The Warren, Mich., company said it would invest $12 million to construct and equip two steel-slitting lines, with plans to open early next year. The company will cut steel coils into smaller pieces for users and wholesalers.
SET said it would be able to process up to 360,000 tons of steel per year. It said that it could eventually build a second phase, doubling what would initially be a 65,000-square-foot facility.
Sid E. Taylor, chairman and chief executive officer of SET Enterprises, said that the expansion is part of the company’s plan to diversify "beyond our Midwest-based automotive roots."
"We’re just excited that they chose Jackson," said Mayor Richard Long. He said jobs would pay $18 to $20 an hour, on average.
The plant is good news for Clarke and surrounding counties, which have been plagued with particularly high unemployment during the recession, in part because of a depressed wood products industry.
SET plans to locate on 17.5 acres that the city of Jackson owns on Clolinger Road, east of its downtown. The property borders the Norfolk Southern Railway, and Long said the city expects that a state grant would pay to build a rail spur. Long said that other incentives, including whether the city would donate the land, have yet to be finalized.
"We’re in the process of getting all that figured out," Long said.
The company cited the proximity to the $5 billion ThyssenKrupp AG steel complex in Calvert. The German steelmaker has repeatedly stated that it believes steel users will cluster nearby because steel is so heavy that it is expensive to ship. SET is at least the third steel-related business that has located in southwest Alabama since ThyssenKrupp announced its plans.
Long said that rail access was key to the project, and that the company also expressed interest in using the city’s Tombigbee River barge slip.
Officials with Lakeside Steel, a Canadian firm building a pipe mill in Thomasville, have said that they expect a slitter to locate nearby to service them. But Antoinette Turner, an SET spokeswoman, said that the company mainly focuses on automotive users, and wanted to supply car plants and auto parts makers in the Southeast.
The company also looked at sites in Washington and Mobile counties, said Jesse Quillen, director of the Washington County Economic Development Initiative. Quillen said that Washington County had no reasonably priced property close to a rail line. The Washington County Commission and private entities have struggled to develop an 80-acre property on the west side of U.S. 43, south of McIntosh. That parcel does not have rail access.
SET, founded in 1989 by Taylor, has five existing locations in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Last year, the firm began making steel ductwork and opened a construction unit.