Mitsubishi plant in state still in limbo

Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas Inc. continues to evaluate how - or if - it will use a $100 million, 200,000-square-foot plant that remains unopened in Fort Smith.

General Electric Co. and Mitsubishi recently agreed to settle patent infringement lawsuits and put an end to the legal wrangling that has been among the deterrents keeping the wind-turbine plant from operating in the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Mitsubishi said all litigation relating to wind turbines has been dropped. GE and Mitsubishi have been in a dispute regarding wind-turbine technology since 2009.

“Under the settlement reached with GE, we are prohibited from disclosing the terms of the settlement agreement,” Mitsubishi spokesman Sonia Williams said. “[Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas Inc.] is considering its options for the future use of the Fort Smith facility.”

Even with that hurdle cleared, the plant faces an uncertain future.

Declining production in the wind-turbine industry also has put the Fort Smith facility in limbo. Mitsubishi built the facility with the intention that it would be the company’s first wind-turbine plant.

Federal tax credits for wind-turbine manufacturers expired Dec. 31, 2012. Nordex USA Inc. stopped production at its Jonesboro plant this year and laid off 40 employees.

Mitsubishi had plans to employ more than 300 workers in the Fort Smith facility. A maintenance staff was all that Mitsubishi had hired, ac-cording to a previous report.

Whether the plant will ever be used remains uncertain. Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Ivy Owen said he knew only that the lawsuit has been settled. Owen has said in the past that he was “confident” Mitsubishi would find a use for the facility.

Fort Smith spokesman Tracy Winchell said city leaders remain hopeful that Mitsubishi will operate in Fort Smith “at some point.”

“We’ve done everything we can,” Winchell said. “We’ve done everything they asked for. It’s been in the court system. Business models change. Hopefully it will all work out.”

GE initially filed a complaint against Mitsubishi with the U.S. International Trade Commission in February 2008. A lawsuit was filed by GE in U.S. District Court in September 2009, and Mitsubishi countersued in Florida and Arkansas in 2010.

Through what Mitsubishi describes as a “cross-licensing agreement,” the two companies each grant use of their intellectual property to the other. They retain their own patents as part of the settlement, which covers wind turbines and “auxiliary matters.”

Business, Pages 23 on 12/27/2013

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