Alcan Composites finished the year with record production of its main construction material, so it bought land for possible expansion into the Benton Industrial Park.

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On Monday, a day before its purchase option was to expire, Alcan paid about $95,000 for 12 acres in the park. However, a decision whether to build a $10 million, 90,000-square-foot plant to make a new foam material could be a year away, said Randy Fox, human resources manager for the Benton plant on West 5th Street, which also serves as Alcan's North American headquarters.

"It's just the next step in the process," Fox said. "We didn't want to lose out on the land since the option ended Dec. 31."

The plant would employ about 55 people, with hourly pay starting at roughly $18, to make a new foam material. Fox said the status hinges on negotiations by an Alcan sister facility in Switzerland to buy an Italian firm that makes the material or at least to license the foam.

He had expected a favorable decision by year's end and expected Alcan to decide to make the foam domestically. That would have meant starting Benton plant construction this year. But Fox said Thursday that negotiations abroad are bogging down.

"The Italian company is owned by an elderly gentleman who is trying to decide what to do with it, whether to pass it on to his children," Fox said. "It's not like one big public company buying another."

Last spring, the Kentucky Rural Economic Development Authority approved an incentive package allowing Alcan to keep two-thirds of the revenue from the 6 percent state payroll tax on employees in the new plant for 15 years.

In October, Alcan hired 10 people to expand its line of Alucobond -- a strong, lightweight aluminum-and-plastic material used mainly for the exteriors of commercial buildings -- to continuous production. Going to two 12-hour shifts helped the 140-employee existing plant set an Alucobond manufacturing record for the second straight year, Fox said.

"It's the highest we've ever done," he said. "Last year was our previous record in production volume based on sales. We surpassed that by 5.8 percent."

Although the increase was offset somewhat by declining prices, it was very encouraging in light of the continued weak economy, he said.

Eight of the 10 employees had lost jobs amid shutdowns of the Mattel toy plant in Murray, the VMV Enterprises locomotive shop in Paducah, the Ingersoll-Rand air compressor plant in Mayfield and Nationwide Tarps, a small business in Calvert City, Fox said.

The combined shutdowns during the past two years cost the Purchase area about 1,500 jobs. More than a third of those are being recouped with the development of the Pella custom-window plant in the former Mattel building in Murray and the reopening of VMV under new ownership.

Fox reviewed 350 résumés to hire the 10, one of whom did not make it through a union probationary period. That left Alcan with nine new workers, most with 10 to 15 years' plant experience, starting at $11.56 an hour. Experienced Alcan workers earn about $15 an hour, above the pay of Mattel, Fox said earlier.

"Their plant closures were our good news," he said. "These people came to us with a wealth of knowledge and phenomenal industrial-plant skills."

Alucobond, best known as the material on the Epcot Center sphere at Florida's Walt Disney World, has been growing in popularity, particularly for airport expansions nationwide. Alucobond was used locally for the exterior of the Marshall County judicial building next door to the Alcan plant, and in Paducah for the Center for Maritime Education and half-moon entrance facade at the Paducah Power System.

The plant also makes Sintra, an all-purpose plastic board used for signs and advertising.