ANDERSON — The Timken Company will increase production and add up to 100 jobs at its plant in Honea Path.

The Anderson County Council is expected to consider a tax-break agreement with the company in a matter of days. For the county to consider this kind of agreement, a company has to agree to invest at least $2.5 million.

Council Chairman Tommy Dunn said the plant growth will add “somewhere in the ballpark” of 100 jobs at the Anderson County plant, which produces roller bearings and specialty steel products. The increased production could go toward bearings for railroad cars, but a company spokeswoman said she could not confirm any proprietary information.

Lorrie Paul Crum, a spokeswoman for the Ohio-based Timken, said Thursday that she could confirm the company will add 50 new jobs in Honea Path between now and next year.

Honea Path Mayor Earl Meyers said the ramped-up production amounts to “job recovery and more” at the plant, which laid off about 60 workers in March 2009. Company officials said the global credit crisis and a decrease in construction had forced layoffs at the Anderson County plant and at Timken plants worldwide.

Crum said “general demand” for the company’s products has picked up in recent months.

In July, Timken announced that it had been awarded a $26 million contract to produce huge bearings used in wind turbines for China’s Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Company.

“Everything we do is driven by demand,” Crum said Thursday. “And certainly, as is the case in Honea Path, we are glad to be able to put more people to work.”

It might not be $26 million, but any job creation is a “tremendous boost” for the Upstate town, Meyers said Thursday.

He said that just a few days ago, he got word that a company that might have come to Honea Path was more heavily considering going to Kansas.

“We have been waiting on plant after plant,” Meyers said. “We know that even with this news, we aren’t going to see everything be perfect overnight. But Timken is a member of our community; we’re proud of them and we need them.”

The Honea Path plant employs about 300 people.

Worldwide, Timken has 17,000 workers in more than two dozen countries. Its annual sales in 2009 totaled $3.1 billion.

Burriss Nelson, Anderson County’s economic development director, said nondisclosure agreements would keep him from discussing any negotiations the county has with any company — “real or imagined.”

“With any job-creation opportunity,” Nelson said, “we are certainly thinking of the families it can help and how it can add to the tax base to help the county.”

Dunn said he hopes “good things come in bunches” and that other job announcements will follow.

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