SC is in the running for another auto plant

South Carolina is in the running for a joint $1.6 billion auto manufacturing plant being planned by Toyota and Mazda, Gov. Henry McMaster’s office confirmed to The State.

“We know that, like a lot of other companies, they’re considering South Carolina, among other states,” McMaster said in Summerville Tuesday, according to the Charleston Regional Business Journal.

Ten other states — Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas — are also being considered, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The plant would make Corollas. Bloomberg has reported that Mississippi is the front runner because it already is home to a factory that’s been producing that model for almost six years. The joint plant is expected to create 4,000 jobs and open by 2021.

The Wall Street Journal reported the plant would need 1,000-acres to accommodate two assembly lines.

McMaster did not elaborate on recruitment efforts, the Charleston Regional Business Journal reported.

“We’ll do our best with anyone who wants to invest money here, anyone who wants to take a risk and invest millions, and sometimes even billions, of dollars in South Carolina,” the publication reported him as saying. “We’ll do all we can to see that they are received well, that they understand what people in the state have to offer.”

The plant would be the fourth automaker in South Carolina, joining BMW in Spartanburg County, Mercedes-Benz in North Charleston, and Volvo, which will open a Berkeley County plant in 2018.

South Carolina leads the nation in the manufacture and export of tires.

BMW has continuously expanded its Upstate plant since it opened in 1992. The plant has 9,000 workers on site, its website says.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 5:32 PM with the headline "SC is in the running for another auto plant."