JX Nippon Oil & Energy USA Inc. Celebrates Completion of Childersburg Facility Expansion

Gray Construction provided design-build services on JX Nippon’s 53,965 s.f. expansion which included tank additions, warehouse space and the associated equipment necessary to make the lubricant product. Up to 15 permanent jobs are expected to be created as a result of the expansion.

Several Childersburg city officials attended the ceremony including Mayor James Payne and Councilman Ralph Rich. Gray Construction President & CEO Stephen Gray, alongside Chief Operating Officer Brian Jones, Southeast Office Regional Manager Daniel Pittman and Executive Vice President of Japanese Markets Hideo Ito were also in attendance.

Drawing more than 100 attendees, the ceremony included remarks from:

• Tamara Moriya, Executive Director, The Japan America Society of Alabama
• Motoshi Sunami, President, JX Nippon Oil & Energy USA Inc.
• Calvin Miller, Executive Director, Talladega County Economic Development Authority
• Yasuji Araki, President and CEO of Lubricants Company, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation
• Sonya D. Reynolds, Vice President/Plant Manager, JX Nippon Oil & Energy USA Inc.
• Brian Jones, Chief Operating Officer, Gray Construction
• Kenji Yamaguchi, Vice President, JX Nippon Oil & Energy USA Inc.

In addition, the event featured a ribbon cutting ceremony, plant tours and an on-site lunch.

JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation is based in Tokyo, Japan and has production facilities and offices in fifteen countries throughout the world. The company has business activities in refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products; importing and selling of gas and coal; supply of electricity; developing, manufacturing and marketing of fuel cell, solar power generation and storage batteries.

As a nationally ranked engineering, architecture and construction firm, Gray has over 55 years of experience in manufacturing, automotive, food and beverage, distribution, hospitality and retail facility construction. Currently, Gray has several large projects that are underway or recently completed including: a Michelin Earthmover tire manufacturing plant in Anderson, S.C.; an automotive exhaust manufacturing facility for Newman Technology, Inc., in Albertville, Ala.; a manufacturing plant for ZF Transmissions in Gray Court, S.C.; a ship loading terminal for Drax Biomass in Port Allen, La.; and multiple projects for Austal USA in Mobile, Ala.

If you have manufacturing plant construction needs, please contact Phil Seale, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing/Food & Beverage Markets at pseale@gray.com. Or, you could also reach out to our Japanese plant construction group through Hideo Ito, Executive Vice President, at hito@gray.com or Shigeru “Shig” Masuko, Regional Manager, Tokyo, Japan at smasuko@gray.com.