Spark plugs plant opens 85,000-square-foot addition in W.Va.

SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — A $15 million expansion of a spark plugs manufacturing plant in Sissonville is complete.

Officials unveiled NGK Spark Plugs USA’s 85,000-square-foot addition on Monday.

The expansion includes two assembly lines capable of producing 20 million spark plugs a year. The company expects to add 80 jobs over the next three years.

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller says NGK was the first of now 20 Japanese companies to open shop in West Virginia.

In 1994, NGK built an oxygen-sensor manufacturing facility that now makes about 10 million sensors a year.

Since then, NGK has expanded three times, including a new distribution center that ships 19 million oxygen sensors and 28 million spark plugs annually.