The Billion-Dollar Boom is On
A billion dollars, 385 new jobs and nearly a million additional square feet are headed to Catawba County as Prysmian prepares a major expansion of its fiber and glass manufacturing operations in Claremont.
A Big Number With a Local Paycheck
The scale of Prysmian’s Claremont expansion is hard to tuck neatly into a paragraph. The company plans to invest more than $1 billion, add a new glass production facility, upgrade existing buildings and double its capacity for fiber optic manufacturing.
Altogether, the project will expand the company’s current footprint by 975,000 square feet.
That makes this more than another sizable manufacturing announcement for North Carolina. The 385 jobs expected to come with the project will pay an average annual salary of $60,870, compared with Catawba County’s average wage of $56,937. If all positions are created, the annual payroll impact could top $23.4 million.
For a community, that is where a billion-dollar investment starts becoming less abstract. Factory expansions make headlines. Hundreds of additional paychecks have a way of showing up throughout the local economy.
Prysmian already has a significant North American manufacturing presence, with more than 50 locations and roughly 9,000 employees. Its work spans transmission, power grids, electrification and digital solutions, including the optical fiber at the center of the Claremont expansion.
What North Carolina Puts on the Table
The project also offers a useful look at how the state competes for large industrial investments.
Prysmian Cables and Systems USA, LLC will be eligible for a performance-based $1 million grant through the One North Carolina Fund. OneNC is designed for competitive job-creation projects, with awards tied to factors including jobs, investment and economic impact.
The money does not arrive simply because a ribbon gets cut. Companies must meet agreed-upon job creation and capital investment targets before receiving payments. For Prysmian, that includes investing at least $665 million to qualify for the OneNC grant payments, and local matching participation is also required.
Governor Josh Stein pointed to the expansion as evidence of North Carolina’s manufacturing and innovation strength, while Prysmian North America CEO Andrea Pirondini said the investment is intended to help meet growing U.S. demand for advanced digital solutions.
For Catawba County, the numbers are unusually large. The bigger story will be what happens when those numbers turn into buildings, production lines and hundreds of new jobs.
For a closer look at the manufacturers shaping North Carolina’s economy, explore the Guide to North Carolina directory at https://www.guidetonc.com/manufacturing.
