NATCHEZ — Sparks flew Friday afternoon in Adams County as 60 men donning Enersteel hardhats and safety glasses welded massive sheets of metal inside a 60-by-600-foot warehouse.

Since Enersteel set up shop in town at the former Dynasteel facility less than six months ago, the company has added nearly 50 employees to the 25 it retained from Dynasteel.

Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ said he is pleased with Enersteel’s progress and continues to enjoy working with them.

“It’s good to see a full parking lot,” Russ said.

And General Manager Mack Van Eaton, who works out of Memphis, Tenn., and was in Natchez Friday, said the company is continuously looking to hire more.

Now staffed at 74 employees, Van Eaton said the ramp up of workforce at Enersteel’s Natchez facility should be ahead of schedule come Jan. 1. Part of the state’s incentive package with the company called for a total 75 employees by the end of the year.

Since the number of clients continues to grow, Van Eaton said the number of employees and additional shifts might soon grow with the speed of business.

Considering the backlog of orders coming in from all over, Van Eaton said the company should have at least 100 employees in the near future.

Enersteel’s current clients include those in the power industry, chemical industry, foundries, the pulp and paper industry and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The facility continues to produce ductwork, which Dynasteel also produced, but a variety of new equipment has expanded what can be manufactured at the facility.

In addition to a new name and many new faces, the facility has also added four gantry cranes, which perform automatic welding; a 20-by-60-foot plasma cutter, which was shipped from Memphis, and cuts metal using a computerized controls; a 12-foot wide 1-inch plate roller, which was shipped from Cincinnati and rolls sheets of metal up to 1-inch thick into cylinders; and band saws.

“All these pieces of equipment are pretty sophisticated,” Van Eaton said.

The equipment has allowed Enersteel to fabricate vessels and tanks with diameters of 18 feet, which a number of their customers have ordered.

In the middle of the open-air facility Friday, sat a portion of a steel floodwall Enersteel has been contacted to build for the Corps of Engineers.

Enersteel officials have also set up a meeting with Elevance Renewable Sciences next week, the new chemical company that plans to ramp up their own facility next door.

Van Eaton said the facility’s proximity to the Adams County port and the Mississippi River has been crucial in luring clients.

Shipping larger items on barges is cost effective and more efficient for clients because a fully completed vessel or tank can be shipped as opposed to delivering the products by truck, in pieces.

Van Eaton said Enersteel’s clients are located all around the country. The facility has also been manufacturing bag houses — filtration devices for foundries — for a client in Mexico.

Plant Manager Joey Gilbert, a Natchez native and former Dynasteel employee, said the Enersteel workforce is composed of welders, fitters, quality control officers, crane operators and other personnel.

Van Eaton said the company has provided additional training to most of its new employees to meet certain standards or specifications for the type of work. But the workers have generally been well trained coming onto the job.

Both Gilbert and Van Eaton said they have been pleased with the new workforce, most of which they connected with through the WIN Job Center.

“We have been very fortunate to have a good group of guys and girls,” Van Eaton said.

Interested applicants should register with the WIN Job Center at 107 John Pitchford Parkway. The job center can be reached at 601-442-0243.