The April 27 storms destroyed or heavily damaged more than 700 chicken houses, and about 70 percent of the affected farmers are staying in the business, said John McMillan, the state's agriculture commissioner.

The rest, he said, have elected to walk away, based on a number of factors, including their age, the amount of insurance they had and whether there is another generation coming along to take over the business.

"It boils down to an individual small business person decision-making process," he said.

Rebuilding was first slowed by the massive amounts of debris left in the wake of the tornadoes, which killed 3.2 million chickens.

Building supplies and labor also have been limited in northern Alabama, the heart of the state's poultry industry, and the region that took the brunt of the tornado damage.

A lot of the farmers have either started or are well into rebuilding their chicken houses by now, but no one has gotten new chickens yet, McMillan said.

As for Alabama's poultry industry at large -- which produces 1 billion chickens annually and ranks No. 3 in the nation behind Arkansas and Georgia -- the tornadoes have had little impact.

"There are so many growers and there are so many chickens being hatched out and delivered every week ... in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal," McMillan said.

However, he adds, for individual farmers, it is a big deal, particularly those who depend on the income the chicken houses bring.

Vail Rubber Works of St. Joseph, Mich., said today that it plans to invest $2.07 million to build a plant in Axis that would supply rollers to the German steelmaker. Vail would initially hire six people, paying them almost $61,000 a year, on average. Company President Joseph W. Hanley said that if the business is successful, employment could grow over time to around 50 employees. That's about the size of the firm's plants in Michigan and Middletown, Ohio.

The Mobile County Industrial Development Authority voted 2-0 to grant $147,680 of sales and property tax breaks to Vail. That includes the waiver of $56,000 in sales taxes on equipment and construction material and $91,680 of non-school property taxes over 10 years.

The company is at least the fifth in a series of suppliers to and customers of ThyssenKrupp to announce southwest Alabama locations.

Vail makes rubber and polyurethane rolls that are used in processing steel and making paper. The company said it has sold $1 million worth of equipment to ThyssenKrupp in the last year, and expects to deliver another $1 million by the end of this year.

The rolls are heavy and family-owned Vail would like to court other steel mill customers in the region, including Axis neighbor SSAB. So the company wants to buy 8 acres of land in an industrial park at U.S. 43 and Salco Road and build a 12,000 square-foot building. Hanley said Vail has plans to grow to as large as 50,000 square feet over time.