The Ono City, Japan-based Tokusen Group company will investseveral million dollars to purchase and equip the building by 2012,according to a statement by the Indiana Economic Development Corp.The public-private partnership offered Tokusen up to $1.1 millionin performance-based tax credits and up to $75,000 in traininggrants, based on the company's pledge to create 134 new jobs forthe area.

Hiromi Kanai, chairman of the US-based arm of the company, saidin a statement that his company is experiencing a growth in demandfor solar panels. The firm also has plants in China and Japan."Plans to expand the group's production capacity have been underwayfor some time," he said in a statement. "With the help of thestate, we were able to purchase and upgrade this existing facilityto meet our production needs more economically than the expansionof our other facilities."

Annual sales of steel cord and saw wire from the firm's400,000-square-foot plant in Arkansas are in excess of $80 million,with clients such as Michelin, Continental, Yokohama andBridgestone. Michelin itself was a previous owner of the Scottsburgfacility, having sold the property to Hyosung, the parent ofAmerican Steel Cord, in 2005.