The domestic leader in production of aluminum powder is adding to its Lower Towamensing Township footprint.

Ampal Inc. hosted an open house Sunday to unveil its expanded powder production plant and newly purchased industrial property.The industrial property will serve as warehouse space and a new location for its research-and-development team that will be relocated from Flemington."We're very excited as this expansion is going to increase our capacity to make aluminum powder by 50 percent," said Ampal President K. Clive Ramsey said. "The warehouse space is also much needed."The transition is expected to create 15 new jobs in Carbon County, bringing Ampal's total employment to more than 40 people."Bringing jobs into the county is what it's all about," said Carbon County Commissioner Tom Gerhard, one of the dignitaries in attendance Sunday. "We're very proud to have companies like Ampal settle down here."It isn't the first time the company has relocated operations from New Jersey, having moved its production facility to Palmerton in 1982."One of they key things we were looking for at that time was a place where we would have rail access and an opportunity for future expansion," Ramsey said. "We also looked at locations in Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, and Lehigh and Northampton counties. We're happy we ended up where we did."Ampal's plant currently produces more than 10,000 tons of aluminum powder per year.Its biggest customer is Sasol, a chemical and energy company based in South Africa."They're our biggest customer here and in Europe," Ramsey said. "They only take delivery by rail car, which is another reason rail access was so important when we were looking for a site back in the late 1970s."Ramsey and other Ampal officials even got a bit of neighborly advice from the New Jersey Zinc Company."They told us how high the Aquashicola Creek would rise and we built our plant a foot higher than that."State Rep. Doyle Heffley, a former Lower Towamensing Township planning commission member, said local government plays a key role in giving businesses like Ampal the opportunity to be located in Carbon County."It's great that they are right in our backyard," he said. "A lot of people drive up and down this road every day and don't realize what goes on here and how important a role aluminum powder plays in our products such as cellphones and in our economy."