SeAH Group, a
South Korea-based holding company that specializes in specialty steel production,
is connected to a recently approved incentives agreement with the city of
Temple.
A big Korean
steel company that is said to be a supplier for Elon Musk's Space Exploration
Technologies Corp. appears to be considering a $110 million fabrication
facility in Temple that would create at least 100 jobs.
The Temple City Council on June 20 approved a Chapter 380
agreement with Project Astro LLC, noting only that the project would be a
metals and fabrication facility on 45 acres in the Temple North Industrial
Park. But public filings appear to link Project Astro LLC to SeAH Group, a
South Korea-based holding company that specializes in specialty steel
production.
Project Astro LLC was incorporated this month,
according to the Texas Secretary of State, and is tied to Michigan-based SeAH
Superalloy Technologies LLC, a division of SeAH Group that specializes in the
manufacturing of specialty alloys. A lawyer based in Temple, which is about 70
miles north of Austin, is listed as the contact on the state filing but did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other public clues also point to SeAH eyeing Temple for a big
production facility. In May, Korean news outlets reported
that SeAH Besteel Holdings Corp. — a division of the company that makes
special steel bars, forged steel bars and automotive parts — announced in
a regulatory filing that its board approved a plan to spend $155.3 million to
build a special alloy plant in the United States, which would be the first such
U.S. plant built by a Korean company. It didn't disclose a potential location
but said it would do so soon.