Cape Fear Arsenal Inc., a manufacturer of ammunition products in the Southeast, will locate a facility in Lumberton that will create 150 jobs and invest more than $15.2 million in the community during the next three years. The plant will be in a vacant 65,000-square-foot building on Starlight Drive that used to house Outer Banks and most recently was home to Soldier Solutions. It has been vacant three years. Gov. Pat McCrory and state Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker announced the company’s plans to locate in Lumberton in a statement released today.

Maersk Line is adding port calls in Panama and Costa Rica to its weekly South Atlantic Express (SAE), currently connecting the Port of Wilmington with Central America. Shippers and receivers using Wilmington can now directly access Manzanillo, Panama and Puerto Moin, Costa Rica, in addition to Puerto Cortes, Honduras and Santo Tomas, Guatemala in northern Central America.

Southeastern North Carolina is no stranger to foreign direct investment (FDI), the cash and companies flowing across the globe in search of market access, raw materials and profitable production sites. But the 11-county region stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Carolina Sandhills is well positioned to draw more attention from global investors according to a recent study by North Carolina’s Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership (“NC Southeast”), which plans to launch a strategy to attract more FDI to the region.

A university-affiliated entity, instead, “will provide office space and personnel, as well as administrative support and services, including the licensure of certain university intellectual property in exchange for its limited partnership interest in the fund,” the release stated. “Our community has the potential to be a real catalyst for business development and start-up success,” Miller said in a statement. “We want to help champion those entrepreneurs with the structure and resources that could lead to long-term, sustainable growth, new jobs for our area and the establishment of Wilmington as a hotbed of innovative business development.”

Governor Pat McCrory and N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker announced today that Trinity Frozen Foods, a frozen food manufacturing company, will locate its operations in Robeson County.  The company plans to create 149 jobs and invest more than $15 million over the next three years in Pembroke.

Governor Pat McCrory and N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker announced today that Ply Gem Industries, a manufacturer of building products, will expand its operations in Columbus County.  The company plans to create 145 jobs and invest $15.5 million over the next three years in Fair Bluff.

The Port of Wilmington may reap the benefits of environmental regulations in Europe that have spurred a huge increase in demand for forest byproducts from the southeastern United States. Wood pellets, often used in wood-burning stoves, are taking the place of coal in many European power plants with the aim of reducing their carbon footprint.

North Carolina created more jobs in 2011 through out-of-state and international investment than any other place in the U.S., according to an annual report IBM produces for clients.

Mountaire Farms is expanding its poultry-processing plant in Robeson County, investing $5 million and adding 90 production jobs, the company announced Wednesday. The new jobs will add about $2million annually to the local economy, said Mike Tirrell, Mountaire's vice president of human resources and business services.

The international label making company CCL, which is the world’s largest maker of labels for consumer products, will move into the space, initially bringing five new jobs and about $200,000 in new investment. CCL is moving to the area to serve the Unilever company.