Published: June 12, 2008 08:51 am         

BREAKING: Sony's Blu-ray to add 85 new jobs

TERRE HAUTE — Sony Corp. will create 85 new jobs while investing $113 million to expand the nearly 1 million-square-foot Blu-ray disc manufacturing Terre Haute plant, said Indiana Secretary of Commerce Nathan Feltman today.

Feltman said the state inked a deal at 11 a.m. in Toyko, which is 13 hours ahead of Terre Haute. It was part of a six-day Japanese trade mission. Gov. Mitch Daniels did not make the trip because of concerns of flooding and storm damage in Indiana.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Sony DADC up to $655,000 in training grants and up to $975,000 in performance based tax credits.

Since manufacturing of Blu-ray began in May 2006, Sony has produced more than 100 million Blu-ray discs at it facilities in Terre Haute, Austria and Japan. By October, the three facilities combined will have more than doubled its Blu-ray manufacturing capacity of 21 million discs per month to 47 million discs per month.

See Friday’s Tribune-Star for Feltman’s comments on the trip and the agreement.