Nearly 200 jobs will not be coming to Brownsville.
City officials confirmed that Enchem America Inc., a South Korean company, notified them of its withdrawal from a $150 million project to build a manufacturing facility near Ford’s Blue Oval City.
The factory planned for Interstate 40 Advantage Industrial Park would have made electrolytes, a key part in electric vehicle batteries.
Brownsville-Haywood Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Aaron Stewart has confirmed that Enchem has canceled plans for its project. Stewart added that no construction has started, except for preliminary site grading. Enchem has not issued a statement explaining its decision.
However, an email to local officials Stewart explained Enchem’s rationale for the decision: “In their words, this decision came ‘after careful consideration and an extensive review of [their] North American business strategy’ and was ‘primarily driven by a recent shift in demand from [their] key North American customers, which has necessitated a strategic adjustment to [their] production base.’ They have also notified the State of Tennessee of their decision.”
Additionally, the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) incentive awarded to the project is in the process of being dissolved, Stewart says.
Details about Enchem’s decision will be shared at the upcoming Oct. 8 Haywood-Brownsville Industrial Development Board meeting.
Ford’s BlueOval City project is a $5.6 billion investment. It is expected to create more than 6,000 jobs via the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center and the BlueOval SK battery plant. However, the project has suffered some setbacks recently, and there are increasing questions about whether the project will proceed at all.
In June, Ford announced that mass production for its electric vehicle manufacturing at BlueOval City would be delayed until 2028.
Then, in August, the joint venture BlueOval SK announced its battery production for BlueOval City would be delayed until 2027. The joint venture between South Korea-based SK and Ford plans to help manufacture electric vehicle batteries for Ford and Lincoln models. The Enchem announcement is likely to delay progress on the Blue Oval project further.
Neither Governor Bill Lee nor Tennessee’s Economic and Community Development Commissioner has responded to the cancellation of the construction plans.