Spain-based North American Stainless plans to invest $150 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Ghent, Kentucky. The expansion, which is the company’s 11th since it began operations in Kentucky in 1990, will include the addition of 36 new jobs in Carroll County.

NAS plans to add a bright annealing line and a cold rolling mill. The bright annealing line will process material from the rolling mill after degreasing the surface of the strip and heat treating it in a controlled atmosphere, giving the material a bright finish. The line includes skin pass and tension leveling to provide additional surface quality and flatness before completing with side trimming to customer specifications.

Common applications from this type of steel include appliances, auto trim, cookware, truck trailers and mass transit vehicles, heaters and surgical instruments. The expansion of the facility on Highway 42 is expected to be completed by 2017.

Acerinox S.A. is headquartered in Madrid and to date, the company has invested more than $2.6 billion in its Carroll County facility, making it the largest Spanish industrial investment in the U.S. NAS, which also is the largest, fully integrated stainless steel producer in the nation, has more than 1,350 employees.

“We thank our parent company Acerinox S.A., for again demonstrating its confidence in our employees,” said Cristobal Fuentes, President/CEO of North American Stainless. “This investment creates an opportunity to increase our sales in the U.S. – a market where a significant percentage of this product is currently imported. We appreciate the Governor’s demonstration of support of the men and women of NAS by meeting with the executives of Acerinox S.A. in Spain, as well as when they visited Kentucky.”

“North American Stainless and its parent company Acerinox S.A., continue to invest in Kentucky,” said Governor Steve Beshear. “This announcement demonstrates the company’s continued confidence that we are the ideal place for their operation to succeed. I want to thank NAS for growing in Kentucky and creating dozens of new jobs.”

To encourage the investment and job creation, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) preliminarily approved the company for tax incentives up to $4 million through the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based incentive allows a company to keep a portion of its investment over the term of the agreement through corporate income tax credits and wage assessments by meeting job and investment targets.

KEDFA also approved the company for tax benefits up to $600,000 through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act, which allows approved companies to recoup Kentucky sales and use tax on construction costs, building fixtures, equipment used in research and development and electronic processing equipment.