BONHAM — The Gonvauto South Carolina, LLC manufacturing facility is now linked to the nearby Norfolk & Southern Railroad line.
Gonvauto is a metal fabrication manufacturing facility being built by Gonvarri Steel Services, a provider of steel processing to manufacturers, to supply the adjacent Gestamp Auotmocion South Carolina, LLC automotive parts manufacturing plant. The Gonvarri Corporation is the parent company of Gestamp.
The new facility is located on a 24-acre site in the Bonham community adjacent to S.C. 18. A major factor in Gonvarri’s decision to choose the site as the location for its Gonvauto facility was its proximity to the Norfolk & Southern Railroad line that runs along S.C. 18. The facility will have a flat steel processing capacity of 100,000 tons and the raw materials it will use in its manufacturing process will be brought in by rail on the Northfolk & Southern line.
In March, the section of S.C. 18 running along the Gonvauto site was closed while a rail spur running from the facility across the highway was built. Construction on the spur was completed within three days but it was not linked to the railroad line at that time.
That link was made earlier this week when a Norfolk & Southern construction crew installed the switching system that will enable trains bringing the raw materials Gonvauto will use into the county to move from the line onto the spur and to the facility and back again.
Gonvauto, which is Gonvarri’s first steel processing center in the United States, is scheduled to go into operation in July. The company’s initial investment in the facility will total $35 million and is projected to created 40 new jobs. Gonvarri plans to make an additional investment of $15 million and create additional 25 jobs over the next 10 years.
Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.
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