Volvo Cars Corp. announced that it has chosen South Carolina as the site for its first U.S. plant, outlining a plan to build a $500 million plant in Berkeley County.
Upstate South Carolina’s top-ranked business climate, world-class research collaborations and a superb quality of life are a major reason the region continues to call world-renowned companies like BMW, Michelin, Fujifilm, GE and others home.
Upstate South Carolina is home to nearly 1.4 million people, a number that continues to grow as the world takes note of the many benefits that are unique to the area. Recently, Livability, a website that explores what makes small-to-medium sizes cities a great places to call home, named Greenville, S.C. to its annual “Top 100 Best Places to Live”.
This week BMW Manufacturing celebrated a major company milestone as it announced the production of its 3 millionth vehicle assembled at its plant in Upstate South Carolina.
The national economy has continued to experience steady growth and with more companies electing to do business in the U.S., there is a growing need for highly skilled labor to meet the demand for American-made goods.
Developed and built primarily as a testing and research center for wind-turbine drivetrains, Clemson University’s Energy Innovation Center in North Charleston, S.C., is still ramping up operations. However, it’s already producing results, says Nikolaos Rigas, the facility’s director and the guiding force behind the unique test center’s development.
Monday marked yet another milestone in the Upstate’s mission to provide the automotive, transportation, and other high-tech sectors with a highly-skilled workforce with the groundbreaking of the Center for Manufacturing Innovation (CMI), a $25 million collaboration between Clemson University and Greenville Technical College.
2015 was another banner year in economic development for the Upstate region of South Carolina. Our 9 member counties gained $1.291 billion in capital investment, announced 76 total projects and created 6,471 new jobs.
According to a recent study by the National Association of Counties (NACO) released earlier this week, Anderson County is one of just 65 counties among the 3,000-plus U.S. counties that has fully recovered from the recent economic recession, meeting or surpassing pre-recession levels for home prices, economic output, unemployment rate and jobs.
Last year proved to be a successful one for business in Upstate South Carolina. In addition to numerous announcements from companies establishing operations in the region, there was no shortage of businesses that announced plans to expand throughout the area.
