Celebrating Indiana’s Economic ‘Backbone’

Inside Indiana Business

INDIANAPOLIS -Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb says the state is taking an “all hands on deck” approach to raising awareness of the impact of small businesses on the Hoosier economy during this year’s edition of Entrepreneurship Week.

Manufacturing Industry Touts $100B Impact

Inside Indiana Business

INDIANAPOLIS -The Indiana Manufacturers Association is celebrating new data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce which shows the strength of the state’s manufacturing sector. The data shows the industry contributed $100 billion to Indiana’s GDP last year, a more than $6 billion increase over 2014.

Japan’s Largest Steel Producer Adding Operations in Shelby County

Japanese Steel Producer Coming to Shelbyville

Inside Indiana Business

SHELBYVILLE -The largest steel producer in Japan will is locating an operation in Shelbyville. Tokyo-based Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. will invest $50 million to build a 150,000 square-foot facility, a move that is expected to create up to 70 jobs by 2021.

Japan’s largest steel manufacturer to expand in Shelbyville, create 70 new jobs

FOX 59

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. — Gov. Mike Pence joined officials from Shelbyville for a major jobs announcement Tuesday. They revealed plans for Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) to establish operations in Shelbyville, creating up to 70 new jobs by 2021. The company is Japan’s largest steel producer.

Japan’s largest steel producer to build plant in Shelbyville

IndyStar

Japan’s largest steel producer is planning to spend $50 million and hire up to 70 people for a new plant in Shelbyville.

Japan’s Largest Steel Company To Open Shelbyville Plant

Indiana Public Media

Japan’s largest steel company will spend $50 million on a new plant in Shelbyville. It is set to open next year, the latest in a long line of Japanese investments in Indiana manufacturing.

Japanese manufacturer plans $50M plant, 70 jobs in Indiana

IBJ

Japan’s largest steel producer announced plans Tuesday to open a subsidiary in Shelbyville that will build a $50 million manufacturing facility employing up to 70 workers by the end of 2021.

City welcomes Japanese manufacturer bringing 70 new jobs

The Shelby News

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. announced Tuesday the company will build a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 400 Northbrook Drive, just off West Michigan Road.

Japanese steel producer to open Shelbyville facility, create new jobs

The Statehouse File

INDIANAPOLIS — Japan’s largest steel producer will establish operations in Shelbyville with plans to create 70 new jobs by 2021. “Indiana is home to the largest Japanese investment per capita in the nation,” Gov. Mike Pence said in a statement, “and today I’m proud to welcome yet another Japan-based firm to the Hoosier state.”

Japan’s largest steel producer adding operations in Shelby County

Rushville Republican

SHELBYVILLE – Governor Mike Pence and Shelbyville Mayor Tom DeBaun joined executives from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), Japan’s largest steel producer, today as the company announced plans to establish operations in Shelbyville, creating up to 70 new jobs by 2021.

Marketing Tech Platform Commits to Indianapolis for Growth

NEW: Score Another For Indy Tech Sector

Inside Indiana Business

INDIANAPOLIS -The central Indiana technology sector is continuing its hot streak. Sigstr Inc. plans to add up to 111 jobs in downtown Indianapolis over the next four years. The email signature marketing platform says a $1.4 million investment will double its downtown footprint. Sigstr was the first company to launch from the Scott Dorsey-led High Alpha venture studio, which also includes another tech startup in expansion mode, Clear Scholar.

Startup tech firm Sigstr plans $1.4M expansion, 111 new jobs

IBJ
Startup tech firm Sigster plans to invest $1.4 million to double its footprint in the Circle Tower Building in downtown Indianapolis and add 111 new jobs by 2020.

Sigstr Doubling Down on Indiana

Inside Indiana Business

INDIANAPOLIS -The chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based Sigstr Inc. says he wouldn’t want to grow the company anywhere else. The email signature platform announced plans this morning to invest $1.4 million into a downtown expansion, which includes more than 100 jobs.

And because #RoadsMeanJobs….

Gov. Pence Joins INDOT, Officials To Kick Off Construction On $92 Million In I-69 Improvements

WBIW

(INDIANAPOLIS) – Governor Mike Pence Wednesday joined Senator Jim Merritt and local leaders from Fishers, Noblesville and Pendleton to officially kick off construction on a $92 million project to modernize Interstate 69 in Hamilton and Madison counties.

Lanes to be added to I-69 in Hamilton County

IndyStar

The $92 million project will stretch 15 miles from Ind. 37, exit 205 in Fishers, to Ind. 38, exit 219, which leads to Pendleton. A lane in each direction will be added, starting on the south end and moving north in construction phases, said Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Nathan Riggs.

Gov. Pence Kicks Off $92 Million I-69 Project

Indiana Public Media

Governor Mike Pence kicked off a $92 million project Wednesday to widen and improve a 15 mile section of Interstate 69. Pence says a focus on infrastructure means safer driving and more jobs.

Governor Pence breaks ground on I-69 improvements

WISH-TV

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) – Road improvements are coming to Hamilton County. The governor kicked off a project Wednesday that is designed to reduce traffic problems on I-69.

Gov. Pence, INDOT kick off ‘Major Moves’ work on I-69

CBS 4

FISHERS, Ind. — Governor Mike Pence today joined Senator Jim Merritt and local leaders from Fishers, Noblesville and Pendleton to officially kick off a new construction project.

Kayleigh Colombo for www.theindianalwyer.com

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg said, if elected, he would seek to change new laws governing the e-cigarette liquid industry, which some vaping retailers and manufacturers have called monopolistic and corrupt.

Indiana Senate leaders are also looking at the issue and impact of the law, which takes effect July 1.

IBJ reported last week that the state has essentially allowed a single private security company to decide who can manufacture e-cigarette liquids to be sold in Indiana.

Everyone else will be shut out of the market as of June 30.

Supporters say the law, which also bans e-liquid sales to minors and sets rules for ingredients, is meant to protect consumers. But critics say some parts of the law are so restrictive that even major national players in the vaping industry won’t be able to do business in Indiana.

Gregg said a review of the law “is in order.”

“Recent media reports about this apparent monopoly are more than a little disturbing,” Gregg told IBJ. “While everyone supports oversight and reasonable safeguards on the industry, the Legislature should re-evaluate this law and the system it created to ensure greater fairness, competition and transparency.”

Republican Gov. Mike Pence, who is seeking a second term and signed the changes into law, is staying silent. The vaping rules are currently being challenged in state and federal court.

“Given the pending litigation surrounding this issue, we will not be commenting,” Pence’s spokeswoman Kara Brooks told IBJ in an email.

But Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said through a spokesman that the chamber’s leaders are “looking into the issue with the intention of getting all the facts surrounding the legislation and its actual impact on the marketplace.”

Long declined to be more specific about the Senate’s review.

The law — first passed in 2015 and revised this year — requires manufacturers applying for a state permit to have first entered into a five-year contract with a security firm.

Only one firm, Lafayette-based Mulhaupt’s, appears to meet the security qualifications, which include having employees that are certified by both the Door and Hardware Institute and the International Door Association, and the firms had to be in compliance by July 1, 2015, meaning that no other security firm can ever become eligible.

Founder Doug Mulhaupt told IBJ previously that it’s not his fault that other security firms don’t meet the requirement.

But the law doesn’t sit right with other security firms, including Bill Nelson, an officer for the Electronic Security Association of Indiana, who specifically took issue with the requirement that a security firm needed to have a certified rolling steel fire door technician on staff.

“Almost any legitimate alarm company can do a proper job for an e-vapor facility,” said Nelson said. “A rolling door certification has absolutely nothing to do with installing a security system.”

The law also caught off guard the associations that are in charge of the certifications.

Todd Thomas, managing director of the International Door Association, said he was contacted in January by Mulhaupt about the certification issue, which the company lobbied to “clear up” in the Legislature this year.

But Thomas said he didn’t realize the law had to do with vaping.

Since then, the group’s certifying affiliate—the Institute of Door Dealer Education and Accreditation—has received several calls from companies asking how they can get certified to comply, Thomas said.

“There is nothing we can do that would make them eligible to serve as a security company in light of the retroactive deadline for compliance,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the market works better when there is a “flourishing population” of people who are qualified, not just one.

“This legislation does nothing to encourage that,” he said. “As such, I am at a loss to explain any benefits to the citizens of Indiana that might result from a law that blocks the many professional door companies and qualified technicians from participating in this.”