Company with ties to Turkey announces La. plant

SLIDELL (AP) — Louisiana offered $765,000 in incentives to bring in a plant with Turkish connections that will fuse metal powders at high temperatures to make precision parts.
The deal with Advanced Sinter Metal Technologies Inc. will bring 15 jobs at first, but could eventually bring 43, St. Tammany Parish officials told NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune .
The Slidell City Council last month approved a permit for the company, which Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson said in an email will make parts for automotive and other industries.
One owner’s parents own Sinter Metal Technologies of Istanbul, which has trained or employed everyone associated with the new plant, but the two companies are separate, General Manager Andrew Herrington told The Associated Press on Friday. The U.S. corporation is based in Delaware.
Pierson said the state is offering $250,000 under the Economic Development Award program. That’s structured as a loan which will be forgiven if the company puts at least $5 million into capital investment and creates at least 15 jobs with average salaries of $55,000 a year.
If it creates and maintains those jobs, he said, it could also get more than half a million dollars under a program offering a 6 percent cash rebate of annual gross payroll for up to 10 years.
“Over a 10-year period, with cumulative payroll well in excess of $8 million, we estimate the company potentially could be eligible to receive $515,000 in Quality Job Program benefits,” Pierson wrote.
The parish economic development agency, called St. Tammany Corp., also committed $25,000, said its head, Chris Masingill.
ASMT’s initial payroll will be more than $800,000 and the company’s total capital investment will be $5 million by the end of 2019, St. Tammany Corp. said in a news release.
The company is leasing part of an old Textron site from the family that owns it, Slidell officials have said.
Masingill said St. Tammany Corp. got involved when plans for a New Orleans plant fell through. The agency worked closely with Greater New Orleans Inc. and Louisiana Economic Development on the project, he said.