Reopened Ascension refinery reaches full employment in 4 months

Gov. Bobby Jindal was joined by Ormet Corp. CEO Michael Tanchuk today to mark the company’s milestone of reaching full employment of 250 jobs just four months after announcing plans to reopen a dormant alumina refinery on the Mississippi River in Ascension Parish. “This is what the new Louisiana we’re building is all about, and we are seeing more and more examples of the economic turnaround in our state every day,” Jindal says in a statement. At roughly 330,000 square feet, the Ormet facility had remained silent for more than four years. In May, Ormet announced it would hire 250 people and invest $21 million to renovate the refinery. Production is scheduled to start the first week of October, and shipments of the primary raw material, bauxite, are already arriving. In addition to the 250 direct jobs, the project is estimated to create 1,050 indirect jobs in the Capital Region economy. Jobs at Ormet average $57,000 a year, plus benefits. During renovation of the alumina refinery, Ormet reached a peak of 600 construction workers. Louisiana Economic Development’s Business Expansion and Retention Group began working with Ormet in mid-2010 to develop a plan for reopening the Burnside refinery on La. Highway 22 south of Gonzales. LED offered a 5% state Retention and Modernization Tax Credit, valued at about $1 million, along with a performance-based loan of $1.5 million. The loan is forgivable if Ormet sustains its job and payroll figures. Ormet also used LED’s FastStart program for hiring and training.