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Sec. 1—Pg. 12
The Times-Picayuiie
Friday, July 13,1S79
Chemical Firm to Build on Coast
By LARRY CIKO
(The Times-Picayune Pearl River Bureau)
•	BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. - A $50 million plastics plant with an annual payroll of $1.4 million will be built in Hancock County by Borg-Warner Chemicals, it was announced Thursday.
Hancock officials who had been working for five years to persuade the firm to locate at. the Port Bienville Industrial Park below Pearlington called the decision "momentous.”
Leonard A. Harvey, president of Borg-Warner Chemicals-Americas, made the announcement to a gathering of more than 100 business and political leaders at Diamondhead.
The plant, which will have an annual capacity of 150 million pounds of ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) engineering thermoplastics, is scheduled for completion in 1982.
It will be built on 205 acres of land at the 2,400-acre Port Bienville.
Borg-Warner is the largest ABS
manufacturer in the world. The new plant will bring U.S. capacity to more than 800 million pounds and worldwide production to 1.4 billion pounds annually.
The plastic is used in hundreds of applications, including automobile interior and exterior trim parts, appliances, tele-communication and business machine housings, pipe, sporting goods and recreational equipment such as boats, campers and snowmobiles.
“We look forward to a long, mutually beneficial relationship with this area,” Harvey said. “We are an aggressive company and leaders in our industry. Our products touch everyone and make life safer and more convenient.”
A.A. “Dolph” Kellar, president of the Hancock County Board of Supervisors, said of the plant decision, “We’re delighted. This is the one thing we’ve been looking for all along.”
Kellar said Borg-Warner is a “blue chip” company which will attract other
quality industry to Hancock County. He said he was especially pleased to learn that about 85 percent of the plant’s employees will come from the local work force.
Wilson W Webre, director of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission, said it took teamwork by all of Hancock’s officials in getting Borg-Warner to pick Port Bienville over a number of other sites.
Webre said that 10 other industries presently are located at Port Bienville, but the Borg-Warner plant will be the largest private firm to ever locate in the county.
“This will bring real character to our park.” said Webre. “It’s certainly inspiring.”
Harvey said his firm, which is based in Parkersburg, W.Va., enjoyed fine cooperation from state and local development people during site studies.
Borg-Warner Chemicals is an arm of Borg-Warner, a $2.5 billion corporation serving the automotive, air condition-
ing, energy and financial services industries in 20 countries on six continents.
Harvey commented on the responsibility his company feels toward four groups of people — employees, the community, customers and stockholders
He said the 2,000 employees in North America are the most important asset, noting that it is a totally non-union work force in an industry which historically has been highly unionized.
“The sense of teamwork among Borg-Warner employees is one important reason why the trademark for the product we intend to manufacture here - CYCOLAC - known worldwide and made our company the leader of the industry,” said Harvey.
With regard to communities, and their safeguard, Harvey said Borg-Warner helped the federal regulatory agencies establish the water standards used by the industry.