Production's promise: manufacturing strengthens the finance-focused region by diversifying its economy.

PositionFOCUS ON CHARLOTTE

picking one company to represent Charlotte's changing economy is difficult, but Siemens Energy Inc. may come closest. The subsidiary of German industrial giant Siemens AG builds steam and natural gas a turbines for power plants around the world. Its '-1 million-square-foot factory in southwest Charlotte employs 1,600, many trained through a partnership with nearby Central Piedmont Community College. By 2015, Siemens expects to employ 1,800 at the plant.

Advanced manufacturing, which runs on computers instead of muscle, is blossoming in the 16 1 counties--12 of which are in North Carolina--that make up the Charlotte Regional Partnership. Eleven percent of the region's workforce is employed in the industry, third only to health care and retail, according to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. It's the unheralded economic-development weapon in a region better known for finance than factories. "The next big thing you're going to hear about is advanced manufacturing' says Natalie Dick, the chamber's vice president for public relations. "It's helping drive interest from other companies to come here. It's helping to create new jobs and bring higher-skilled workers here."

Charlotte is the headquarters city of two Fortune 500 manufacturers: Nucor Corp., the largest steel producer in the country, and SPX Corp., which makes industrial equipment. But other traditional members of that list also have a presence in the Queen City. Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kellogg Co.; Frito-Lay North America Inc., part of Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc.; and Charlotte-based Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated, the nation's largest independent Coke bottler, employ a large share of the 12% of Mecklenburg County residents who work in food and beverage manufacturing. The chamber is leading an effort to attract more Chinese manufacturers to the city. China-based solar-energy technology developer Jetion Solar Co. already has its U.S. headquarters there.

Manufacturers like Charlotte's robust transportation system, says Mark Vitner, a local economist who crunches numbers for San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. That advantage will grow stronger with the intermodal transportation center at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Built by Norfolk Southern Corp. with financial help from the city and federal government, it began limited operations at the end of 2013 but eventually could transfer up to 250,000 shipping containers per year from trucks to trains. Backers say it...

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