A company that provides key components to the growing electric vehicle industry is set to build a new plant in Fort Worth that will create about 100 jobs.
The Fort Worth City Council unanimously approved Jan. 25 a tax abatement agreement with MP Materials, a company that manufactures components for electric vehicles. The plant is considered key to building a national manufacturing infrastructure to supply components for electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies.
“Not only does the MP Materials project have a lot of local importance for Fort Worth’s growing EV industry, but their NdFeB magnets have several positive implications for our regional and national infrastructure,” said Robert Sturns, the city’s director of economic development. “These magnets are important components of the technologies that we use and rely upon daily, and we look forward to seeing them produced right here in Fort Worth.”
MP Materials will develop a 200,000-square-foot greenfield metal, alloy and neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet manufacturing plant, which will also serve as the business and engineering headquarters for the company’s magnetics division, MP Magnetics. The Fort Worth plant will have the capacity to produce about 1,000 tons of finished NdFeB magnets per year with the potential to power about 500,000 electric vehicle motors annually, according to the company.
The NdFeB alloy and magnets produced will also support other key markets, including clean energy, electronic and defense technologies. The plant will also supply NdFeB alloy flake to other magnet producers to shore up the U.S. magnet supply chain, according to the Las Vegas-based company. A gradual production ramp is expected to begin in 2023 for the Fort Worth plant.
The plant will be at 13840 Independence Parkway in the AllianceTexas development. The manufacturing and headquarters facility has a value of at least $100 million, according to documents from the city. The mining of the materials will take place in California, but the magnets will be manufactured here.
To secure the manufacturing plant and the division headquarters, the city approved a seven-year agreement on up to 60% of the incremental value of real and business personal property taxes.
To receive the tax abatement, the company is required to spend a minimum of $40 million in total construction costs by the end of 2023 and spend $60 million in business personal property. Fifteen percent of construction costs are required to be with contractors that are minority and women business enterprises.
The company will also be required to create 30 new full-time jobs by the end of 2023 with an average annual wage of $80,390. Total employment is expected to eventually be about 100, Sturns said in an earlier presentation. Tax revenue to the city over the seven years of the agreement is expected to be $1.8 million.
MP Materials also announced in December it entered an agreement with General Motors to supply U.S.-sourced and manufactured rare earth materials, alloy and finished magnets for the electric motors in more than a dozen automobile models beginning in 2023.
NdFeB permanent magnets are critical components to the electric motors and generators that power electric vehicles, robots, wind turbines, drones, defense systems and other technologies to transform electricity into motion and motion into electricity, according to the company.
Bob Francis, a former editor of the Business Press, is business editor of Fort Worth Report. His articles continue to appear in the Business Press.
This article was originally published by Fort Worth Report.