Alabama On The Rise

With more than 739,000 cars and light trucks made in 2007 (more than 2 million since 1997), and 48,000 jobs with a payroll of $5.2 billion, Alabama is rightly billed as a major automotive hub in the United States.

It sometimes eclipses the variety of potent industries helping make Alabama’s economy diverse and strong.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is an international hub of its own right in life sciences. As the state’s largest employer with 18,000 people, UAB is a global leader in healthcare and medical research. Huntsville’s HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is leading research in the Human Genome Project.

Putting a man on the moon was largely accomplished in Huntsville, where NASA built the Saturn V rocket. Today, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Teledyne Brown are among 280 space-defense-related companies calling Alabama home. Mobile will be instantly on the international map as headquarters for the $40 billion EADS North America mid-air refueling tanker project for the U.S. Air Force, pending federal approval.

Fast Facts

  • The steel industry is alive and well in Alabama. German-based ThyssenKrupp Steel chose a site near Mobile for a $4.6 billion steel-making plant that will employ 2,700.
  • Alabama’s chemical manufacturing industry is the second largest exporter in the state, with $2.2 billion output in 2006.
  • Food processing is vibrant. Alabama ranks second nationally in catfish sales and is the third-largest broiler producer in the country.
  • The state has the nation’s second-largest stand of commercial timberland; good enough to support 850 manufacturing operations, churning out $11 billion in products each year.
  • Alabama boasts of four major tire manufacturing plants employing more than 3,000, with rubber and plastics accounting for 15,000 jobs in 2006.
  • Birmingham and Mobile are two of the 50 Most Logistics Friendly Cities ranked by Logistics Today. At the crossroads of the Sunbelt with a major ocean port in Mobile, six interstates and abundant rail, Alabama has more than ample distribution and warehousing capabilities.

Click an industry sector on the right for more detailed information.

Call us at 1-800-718-2726 or send us an e-mail today to start learn more about amazing Alabama.