(T he Center Square) – A carbon steel and aluminum parts manufacturer plans to create jobs in rural Alabama, state officials announced.

Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield announced this week that O’Neal Manufacturing Services is planning to invest $5.5 million in Fayettte for a 130,000-square-foot facility to make steel while planning to create 70 full-time jobs within three years of the project’s completion. The company is a subsidiary of Birmingham-based O’Neal Industries.

“O’Neal Manufacturing Services’ investment will bring advanced capabilities to its new fabrication facility in Fayette,” Canfield said in the release. “This is a positive development for the community not only in terms of job creation but also for growth potential in the future.”

The company plans to manufacture carbon steel and aluminum parts that will be used to produce equipment in the construction, agriculture, materials handling, transportation, and other industries.

According to the release the company, which will have 10 facilities when Fayette is complete, plans to utilize robotic machine technology along with welding stations, beam-cutting equipment, a wet paint booth, press brakes, plasma and saw cutting initiatives that will all aid medium- to heavy-gauge steel production.

“We are thrilled to have acquired the facility, and we are even more excited to have the skilled workers that were available in Fayette. People have always been our most valuable asset,” OMS President and CEO Kent Brown said in the release. “In this time of unprecedented low unemployment and worker shortages across the country, good people have become even more valuable.”