Plastic components maker Nypro will expand manufacturing operations in Alamance County, investing $6.5 million and creating 60 jobs over the next three years.

The company has two North Carolina plants in Graham and Asheville that make plastic components for the consumer electronics, healthcare, packaging and automotive industries.

Nypro employs 44 people at its Graham facility in Alamance County but has been unable to expand there. The company will this year move that operation and its 44 workers about 10 miles northeast to a larger plant in Mebane, just off I-40. It announced plans today to add 60 jobs there by 2010.

"North Carolina is a national leader for plastics employment and this announcement strengthens that position," said Gov. Mike Easley in a prepared statement released this morning.

As an incentive, the state will provide a $150,000 grant to be matched by a local contribution.

Nypro is based in Clinton, Mass., and employs 300 in North Carolina. The company has 55 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.