Gov. Susana Martinez welcomed new business in Santa Teresa Thursday
Silver City Sun News
By: Diana Alba Soular
June 30th, 2014
http://www.scsun-news.com/silver_city-news/ci_26063866
LAS CRUCES >> Gov. Susana Martinez visited Santa Teresa on Thursday to highlight about 300 jobs that will come to the Santa Teresa area with a new copper wire manufacturer.
This is good news, as well, for Grant County residents. Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc., will be a supplier to the copper wire manufacturer, according to Angela Heisel, public information officer for New Mexico Economic Development Department.
The new manufacturer, the Turkish-based CN Wire Corp., will renovate a 256,000 square-foot facility in a Santa Teresa industrial park — a project discussed in recent weeks in front of the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners.
Martinez and economic development officials welcomed the company, saying the new project is part of an ongoing attempt to make Doña Ana County a hub for international and border business. It’s part of an ongoing boom, they said.
“We wanted them here very badly,” Martinez told a crowd gathered in a giant empty warehouse, the site of the upcoming project. “When they decided to bring 300 jobs, we couldn’t be more grateful.”
CN Wire Corp. officials presented Martinez and state economic development Secretary Jon Barela with two decorative plates from their country as gifts and thanked state and local officials for working with them on the project. They said the plant is their first manufacturing facility outside Turkey.
Oguz Abalioglu, executive board member for Er-Bakir, parent company for CN Wire Corp., touted the company’s success in Turkey, saying its the 19th largest company in that country, employs 750 people there and exports about $400 million yearly in copper products.
“We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with the state of New Mexico, Doña Ana County and Santa Teresa,” he said.
Turkish Consul General Bari Batu attended from Houston.
The first operations could be underway in July, with full operations starting later this year or early next year, company officials said.
International Wire Group, an existing copper wire manufacturer at Santa Teresa — and a competitor to the proposed new company — said Martinez’s job announcement was “premature,” pointing out that a key approval on an incentives package being offered to the new company has yet to be made.
“Of course, International Wire is prepared to compete with CN Wire on a level playing field, without taxpayer subsidies,” the company said in a statement. “International Wire is also concerned that the citizens and taxpayers of New Mexico and Doña Ana County have not received full information regarding the costs and benefits of the CN Wire transaction.”
International Wire Group, for instance, questioned the numbers of pledged jobs because CN Wire Corp. stated in its application for incentives that it would create 195.
Assistant County Manager Chuck McMahon said that 195 is the number CN Wire Corp. has guaranteed to create, but the company expects to hire more people than that.
CN Wire Corp. has been before the Doña Ana County commission in recent weeks for a first approval of a $70 million industrial revenue bond. But a second part of that approval — a determination about whether the bonds, which confer tax breaks, would hurt existing businesses in the county — has yet to be granted by the state Board of Finance, according to that board.
Martinez said the new company plans to invest $42 million in its own money buying and renovating the property at 11 Runway Drive.
When the Doña Ana County Commission signed off upon the $70 million in bonds on June 10, International Wire Group lodged a formal complaint about the move.
Susan Dunlap contributed to this story. Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5443.