Area Development
For the second time in two years, a Lebanon, MO-based firm producing metal stamping and fabricated components for a broad range of industries is significantly expanding its operations.

Detroit Tool and Metal Products (DTMP), which is nearing the completion of its first expansion creating 125 jobs, is also planning a second major expansion that will create another 75 new local positions. That first expansion already has created 115 new jobs. For the second expansion, the firm will build a 35,000-sq.-ft. addition and create 75 more jobs. Together, the two projects are expected to directly and indirectly inject millions of dollars into the local economy.

"The ongoing growth of Detroit Tool and Metal Products, along with its increasing investment and new job growth, is a major step forward for the economy of Laclede County and central Missouri," noted Missouri Gov. Nixon. "This new investment into the state of Missouri is another strong sign that our economy is headed in the right direction."

The state of Missouri authorized a $3.1 million incentive package for the company redeemable over the next five years (if requirements of each incentive program are met).

Detroit Tool and Metal Products, now in its 55th year of service, is a full-service provider of processes that include tooling, stamping, fabrication, weldments, painting and modular assemblies.

Two weeks ago, the Missouri Department of Economic Development announced that the state's unemployment rate for the month of April dropped to its lowest figure in two years, 8.9 percent. The state added nearly 27,000 new jobs in the months of March and April combined. Missouri's international exports are also up 18 percent thus far in 2011, after increasing by an impressive 35 percent during 2010.