Gov. Robert Bentley presents Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group Chairman Li Changjie with a plaque bearing the state seal of Alabama after the company announced in March that it would build a $100 million, 300-job plant at a 50-acre site just south of Thomasville High School (Courtesy of governor's office)A Chinese company hailed as an economic lifeline for Alabama’s downtrodden Black Belt region may be looking to move elsewhere — and at least one top state official says the state’s new immigration law is to blame.
Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, which announced earlier this year its plans to build a $100 million plant in Thomasville, "is having second thoughts" about Alabama in light of the controversial law, according to David Bronner, chairman and chief executive of the Retirement Systems of Alabama.
"They’re not happy," said Bronner, citing conversations with Golden Dragon executives. "They have expressed their concerns to me on numerous occasions."
But Greg Canfield, the state’s top industrial recruiter, said he’s heard no such complaints during his ongoing negotiations with the company. Instead, he said, Golden Dragon has expanded the scope of the 300-job project, and is evaluating additional sites in Alabama and other states as a potential home.
"What has changed is the size of the project, and so they’re looking at alternative locations," Canfield, director of the Alabama Development Office, said by phone from Tokyo, where he was participating in an automotive industry hunting trip. "It had nothing to do with the immigration law. We’re actively talking to them and they’ve made no mention of that."
Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day said he’d heard no direct complaints from Golden Dragon, but that rival states are using the controversy over the new law — described by its backers as the toughest in the nation — to create doubt about Alabama’s tolerance for foreign firms.
"There is a lot of uncertainty and misunderstanding, and some of that frankly is being fanned by our competition," Day said. "There is an impression that we don’t want immigrants here, and that’s been frustrating. The timing certainly hasn’t helped in terms of this project."
Yet to break ground
Golden Dragon in March announced plans to build its plant at Thomasville in southwest Alabama. The project would be a boon for rural Clarke County, where the average per capita income is less than $15,000 and about 1 in four live below the poverty line. Neighboring Wilcox County, which hopes to benefit from the plant and from industrial suppliers that could locate nearby, has state's highest unemployment rate at 21.5 percent.
Alabama’s new law aimed at curbing illegal immigration was approved by the state Legislature in June and took effect in September.
Golden Dragon has yet to break ground on the project, missing several projected milestones for the start of construction. Officials close to the project attributed the delays in part to a lawsuit that could affect financing for the plant.
Representatives of the Alabama Education Association are challenging tax credits for the project that were included in a bill passed by the legislature earlier this year. The lawsuit is pending before Montgomery County Circuit Judge Truman Hobbs Jr.
State Sen. Marc Keahey, D-Grove Hill, whose district includes the proposed site in Thomasville, said the lawsuit has complicated negotiations with the company, but that he remains optimistic that the project will move forward.
"We stay in regular contact with them, and I haven’t heard anything to suggest it won’t happen," Keahey said. "No deal moves as fast as you’d like, but I feel real good about it."
Chilling effect
RSA chief executive officer David BronnerBronner, who oversees the state's $29 billion public pension fund, first voiced his concerns about the immigration law in an interview with the Birmingham News, saying it had caused the Spanish owners of BBVA Compass to cancel plans for an $80 million bank tower in Birmingham.
ADO’s Canfield also disputed that claim, saying BBVA simply made a financial decision to renovate its existing office space.
"I do have first-hand knowledge of that decision, and it absolutely had nothing to do with immigration," he said. "It was a matter of timing and the fact that their business model had changed."
Bronner, a frequent partner on state efforts to recruit large industrial projects, told the Press-Register that the law has become an impediment to economic development. He said state legislators went overboard in their efforts to address the immigration issue.
"My point is, we don’t need the harshest law in the country. We don’t need to be out front, leading the band on this one," he said. "It’s fine to send a message to Washington, but we don’t need to be the poster child for intolerance. It sets back everything we’ve done over the past 20 years to try and change that image."
Bronner said the law has had a chilling effect on foreign investment in Alabama at a time when the state economy is increasingly dependent on international companies.
"Every ethnic group has cold feet about us right now," said Bronner. "We’ve given our competitors a hammer to beat us over the head with, and they’re using it."
Officials with Golden Dragon and its U.S. representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The company is based in Xinxiang, China, and claims to be the world’s largest maker of specialized copper tube, with sales close to $4 billion a year. It says it makes more than 15 percent of all copper tube used in air conditioning and refrigeration worldwide.
Golden Dragon said previously that it looked at 62 sites in many different states before settling on Thomasville. Other finalist sites were near Dallas and Little Rock, Ark. Golden Dragon was the first Chinese company recruited to build a new plant in Alabama, state officials said when making the announcement in March.
"This is the first, but it will not be the last Chinese company that comes to Alabama," said Gov. Robert Bentley during a March 28 ceremony at the Thomasville Civic Center.
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Political editor George Talbot's column runs Wednesdays. Reach him at 251-219-5623 or gtalbot@press-register.com