Contracts Awarded for Kobe Aluminum Plant in Kentucky

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated, Houston, Texas). Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products LLC (Bowling Green, Kentucky), a recently established company, will begin site work soon on a new aluminum forging operation in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products LLC is a joint venture among Kobe Steel Limited (Tokyo, Japan), which owns 60% of the company, Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Nagoya, Japan), 15%, and Mitsui & Company Limited (Tokyo, Japan), 25%. The plant will contain office space, continuous casting, mechanical forging, and heat-treat capabilities. (PEC 23001573)

Construction on the 125,000 square foot plant should begin in October 2003, with completion scheduled for 2005. James N. Gray Construction (Lexington, Kentucky) has been chosen as general contractor. Electrical contractor will be Dotson Electric (Bowling Green, Kentucky) (Mike Dotson, Project Manager), and Lyons Mechanical (Glasgow, Kentucky) (Quintin Littrell, Project Manager) will do the mechanical and plumbing work.

Kobe Steel will be responsible for all aspects of manufacturing and quality assurance, and Mitsui and Toyota will be will be responsible for marketing to American manufacturers. The new Most Incorporated plant, a secondary aluminum smelter currently under construction in Jackson, Tennessee, will probably supply liquid metal and ingot to this forging operation.

Headquarter offices for Kobe Aluminum will be in the plant itself, so contractor or other contact should, for the present time, be made through the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce.