Manufacturing
The days when “manufacturing” suggested a low-tech industry are long gone. Today, even the manufacturing of the simplest components has become a complex, highly precise process that demands skilled employees and sophisticated equipment.
The Golden Triangle region has been up to the challenge for decades, evidenced by the success of manufacturing industries like the following:
- Aerojet Rocketdyne
- CMC Steel of Arkansas
- Lion Oil Company
- Nexans AmerCable
- Albemarle Corporation
- El Dorado Chemical Company
- Southern Aluminum
They have seen what a highly skilled workforce and its focus on quality and productivity have meant to their bottom lines.
Manufacturers in our region know what our regional resources can provide:
- A highly skilled workforce
- Focus on quality and productivity
- Affordable labor cost
- Arkansas is a right-to-work state
The regions offers:
- High speed connectivity
- Transportation by both rail and freight make it easy to access the raw materials they need and ship their finished products out across the country and throughout the world.
Our regions’ educational institutions partner with local industries to provide the skills manufacturers need. Area employers benefit directly from the proximity of these institutions:
- Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia
- Southern Arkansas University-Tech, Camden
- South Arkansas Community College, El Dorado
Chemical Industry
The manufacturing sites of Albemarle Corporation as well as Great Lakes Solutions, a Chemtura Corporation, were constructed to take advantage of the second largest bromine-rich brine reserve in the world located in the Golden Triangle Region of South Arkansas known as the Smackover Limestone Formation.
Albemarle Corporation’s Magnolia manufacturing operations make up one of the world’s largest suppliers of bromine and bromine chemicals. They have two plant sites in the Magnolia area.
The Great Lakes Solutions’ manufacturing sites located in El Dorado extract the brine from wells located throughout Union county. They have three manufacturing plants, along with support services.
Each company has over 500 employees. They produce more than 30 different chemical ingredients used in the manufacturing of a wide range of chemicals. Among these products are flame retardants used in household plastics, fabric fibers and insulation material. Their products can be found in many consumer products used every day, including the plastic used in televisions and computers, bathroom disinfectants, soaps and carpeting.
Timber Industry
In the lowlands of Arkansas lies the Gulf Coastal Plain. Covering south Arkansas, major communities in the region include Texarkana, El Dorado, Magnolia, Camden and Monticello, parts of Pine Bluff and Little Rock. Sandy, rolling hills harbor pine trees and hardwoods found along river bottoms. Wildlife such as deer, beaver and wading birds are abundant.
The Gulf Coastal Plains are also home to major corporations of the forest products industry and include these companies in the Golden Triangle:
- Anthony Forest Products
- Georgia Pacific Corporation
- Deltic Timber Corporation
- Weyerhauser Company
Aerospace and Aviation
East Camden
Aerojet/Rocketdyne Corporation
- Manufacturing facility for development and production of tactical solid rocket motors
- Explosive warhead manufacturing
- Rocket motor and explosives test facility
- Complete manufacturing site support
- Proximity to prime customer assembly facilities
General Dynamics Armament & Technical Products
- Rocket and missiles systems for the military
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control Camden Operations
- Defense Contractor
Magnolia
Amfuel Fuel Cell & Coated Fabrics Co
- Designer and fabricator of composite material products for aviation, aerospace, military ground forces and commercial transport industries