The Huntsville Times staff

Roy L. Williams -- The Birmingham News

Marian Accardi, The Huntsville Times

Dan Murtaugh, Press-Register

MOBILE, Ala. -- Austal USA will hold a keel-laying ceremony July 22 for its first Joint High-Speed Vessel. 

The keel is the beam that runs down the center of a ship. Laying it is traditionally viewed as the first step of the shipbuilding process. 

The ceremony for the vessel -- to be named Spearhead -- will be at Austal's shipyard on Mobile River across from downtown. 

The company is one of the Mobile area's largest employers, with nearly 1,500 workers. 

The 103-meter, high-speed military transport ferry will carry military equipment -- including vehicles and a helicopter -- and troops at speeds of up to 43 knots. Austal was selected as the prime contractor on the project in November 2008, and has received money for four more ships. Altogether, the U.S. Navy and Army are expected to spend $1.6 billion on 10 of the ships by 2013. 

Jeff Amy, Press-Register

AlphaPET considers expansion

By Eric Fleischauer
Staff Writer

A proposed $12 million expansion of AlphaPET's Finley Island Road plant would reduce its dependency on oil, reduce its carbon footprint and reduce pollution, a company official said Wednesday.
The manufacturer of the main ingredient used in clear plastic bottles, AlphaPET, in June completed construction of its $193 million plant. It employs 103 workers in its two lines.
The expansion would give the company the ability to recycle used water bottles, shredded into plastic flakes, into the PET resin needed for new bottles. It would add 12 workers to the company, increasing its annual payroll - exclusive of benefits - to $5 million.
Asheville vs. Decatur
Plant Manager Yash Awasthi told the Decatur Industrial Development Board that AlphaPET's parent company has not decided whether to build the expansion in Decatur or in an Asheville, N.C., plant. The parent company, Taiwan-based Indorama Ventures Public Co. Limited, is the largest PET producer in the world.
The Decatur plant produces 1 billion pounds of PET a year, making it the largest producer in North America.
The IDB unanimously approved AlphaPET's requested tax abatements. The abatements would reduce state sales and use taxes by $205,000 during construction, IDB attorney Barney Lovelace said. The board's action would abate Morgan County non-educational property taxes by $276,000 over 10 years.

Investors will have a greater say in the work of the newly organized Coastal Gateway Economic Development Alliance, but the mission of the five-county economic development organization remains the same, board members said.
Chip Haringan of Fulton Logging Company, who was elected as the interim chairman during the alliance's first board meeting at BankTrust in Monroeville last week, said that the alliance's main mission is to draw business and industry to Escambia, Monroe, Conecuh, Clarke and Choctaw counties.
"Cosmetically, there are not many changes, but structurally, there are significant changes," Harrigan said last week. "It's actually a different type of organization."
The old Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority was a "quasi governmental" body whose board was appointed by each county commission, with three members per county, Harrigan said.
"That structure has changed," Harrigan said. "We've embarked on our second five-year fundraising campaign, and as part of that fundraising campaign, we hired a fundraising group that went out and interviewed about 60-70 of our investors and asked for their input on how they felt like the organization could be improved."
During their efforts, the newly developed alliance was able to start with $1.255 million in secured pledges.