ThyssenKrupp Waupaca Inc., which operated an iron foundry in McMinn County for nine years before closing it last year, is reopening the metal manufacturing site and will hire 250 workers after a surge in business from auto parts suppliers.

The company said it will reopen its Etowah facility in first quarter 2012. Before closing, the plant employed about 275 workers. The foundry was idled in January 2010 because of a "significant downturn" in the North American automotive and truck markets and resulting decrease in orders.

The company said by the end of 2010 orders for its products recovered to "near pre-crisis levels" because of increased market demand and adjustments to its structural capacity, which have continued to rise in 2011.

According to ThyssenKrupp, hiring of maintenance and production workers will begin in August. Former employees who lost their jobs when the plant closed will have priority.

"The reopening of our Etowah foundry is good news for our customers and for the state of Tennessee, but also for the men and women we will be able to put back to work," Gary Gigante, president and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Waupaca, said in a statement issued Thursday. "Our facility is one of the most technologically advanced in the entire iron castings industry, and we are proud to once again be open for business in McMinn County."

The company said reopening the Etowah plant indicates its commitment to the longterm supply requirements of customers as well as confidence in growth prospects.

The plant's restart will occur in two phases, with production of cast iron used to make disc brake rotors and brake drums beginning early in the first quarter of 2012 and reaching full capacity by mid- to late-third quarter. The production of ductile iron used in castings for products like differential cases and crankshafts will be made beginning in second quarter 2012, with full capacity expected by first quarter 2013.

By September, ThyssenKrupp Waupaca will begin installing new melt, core and mill room equipment in the Etowah foundry for ductile iron production, and about 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space will be added to the 270,000-square-foot plant.

The Waupaca Foundry's closing was a blow to the city of 3,500 and McMinn County, which had been planning for an expansion at the Waupaca plant in 2008. The foundry opened in 2001 and the planned expansion was dropped when the recession hit.

But the pending reopening is a boost for the area, according to Jack Hammontree, executive vice president of the McMinn County Economic Deveopment Authority.

"Its' something we've been hoping to receive for several months now. It's like getting a new company," Hammontree said.

He said the city of Etowah and McMinn County worked with the county's Economic Development Authority and the state to offer ThyssenKrupp an incentives package. Hammontree declined to offer specific details about the incentives, but said the company is being offered a PILOT, or a proposal where it can make payments to local government in lieu of taxes.