Joe Mallari (from left), Larry Wade and Russ Feivou put the final steel in place during a topping-out ceremony at the new Mitsubishi Electric plant under construction at RivergateIndustrial Park.

The topping out ritual (shown above) honors ironworkers for finishing the new Mitsubishi plant’s skeleton. This massive structure is comprised of 8,000 tons of steel beams.

Among those who came for the ceremony were a dozen people from Mitsubishi headquarters and the "mother plant" in Japan. The Memphis operation will be Mitsubishi's the first outside Ako, Japan, to manufacture the large transformers.

Read the complete Commercial Appeal article here: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/sep/02/mitsubishis-strong-building-can-withstand-heavy/