Steel fabricator Merrill Steel of Schofield, Wisconsin, on Wednesday announced plans for a $32 million manufacturing facility in Osceola, growing the booming steel industry in northeast Arkansas.
The project is expected to create 108 new jobs over three years, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission said in a news release.
Privately held Merrill’s new facility will be located at the Denso Manufacturing Arkansas Inc. site in Osceola. The Japanese auto parts maker announced in February 2024 that it would close the factory in phases and move production to other facilities by October 2025. About 650 employees are affected by the closure.
Denso opened the facility in 2005.
Merrill is scheduled to begin renovating the plant in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The company, a supplier of complex structural steel and heavy plate fabrication, chose to locate the factory in Mississippi County due to state and local partnerships and access to raw steel, according to the release.
“The addition of the Osceola facility will perfectly complement our existing facilities, providing a high volume of quality fabricated and coated structural steel to our well-established client base,” Fred Schwalbach, president of Merrill, said in the release. “We are overwhelmed by the support we are receiving from the State of Arkansas, the Osceola community and the local individuals associated with the steel industry.”
The state offered Merrill the following incentives for the project: the Tax Back program, which provides sales and use tax refunds on the purchase of building materials and taxable machinery, and seven years of the Create Rebate program, an annual cash rebate based on the number of jobs added by a company and targeted wages.
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