The $1.1 billion purchase of LeTourneau Technologies by Milwaukee-based Joy Global has been completed, and the new parent company “has big plans for the facility,” a spokesman said.

“We are very optimistic about Vicksburg,” said Mark Sanders, vice president of corporate marketing, who visited the local yard Tuesday. “We intend to grow the business. It is less certain whether the yard will continue to build rigs, but we intend to use the skills of the workforce there to manufacture rig kits as well as work from our other Joy Global mining factories.”

Current employment and payroll numbers have fluctuated in recent months, Sanders said, and the company expects the workforce to stabilize at about 250 people once a current manufacturing order is complete. He declined to give information about the payroll.

The number represents a shift downward from the approximately 600 reportedly employed at the Vicksburg yard earlier this year. That number also was down from about 1,100 two years ago, a number that included contract workers.

LeTourneau Technologies is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company designs, builds and supports equipment for the mining, forestry and oil and gas drilling industries, with the Vicksburg plant focused on oil drilling equipment.

Its previous parent company, Rowan Companies, also of Houston, announced plans to sell LeTourneau Technologies May 13.

Wednesday, the Vicksburg yard was continuing recovery and clean up from the 2011 Mississippi River flood, which shut down most operations at the riverside yard for several weeks.

At the time the sale was announced, Vicksburg plant manager Bo-D Massey said when the flood receded, work would continue on the $150 million Joe Douglas 240-C class shallow water rig that has been under construction since 2009.

The rig was to have been completed this month but was delayed due to the flood, which saw a reduced crew of about 100 workers boarding boats to get to the inundated plant with LeTourneau Road overtopped by water.

The plant was closed for nearly two months during a flood in 2008.

Rowan had owned LeTourneau since 1994 and announced in 2008 its intention to sell or spin off the subsidiary. The onset of the recession shelved those plans.

In its 2010 annual report, Rowan stated that it had no further plans for rig construction in Vicksburg following the completion of the Joe Douglas, and that employment at the Vicksburg yard could be significantly reduced.

Joy Global, founded 125 years ago, employs more than 10,000 workers worldwide and is a major provider and servicer of equipment for surface and underground mining. Their purchase announcement noted that LeTourneau’s wheel loaders and drilling rig equipment will complement the company’s line of products in the mining and drilling industries.

“The acquisition of LeTourneau brings two very strong business platforms to Joy Global,” the company’s chief executive officer, Michael Sutherlin, said in a prepared statement. “We welcome the people of LeTourneau to Joy Global, and look forward to working with them to capture the opportunities that come with these two businesses.”

Joy Global reported sales of $3.5 billion in 2010, with a net income of $461.5 million. For the first quarter of 2011, the company reported sales of $869.5 million and first-quarter operating profit of $153.8 million, up by 31 percent from the prior year.

For Rowan, after-tax proceeds of the sale were estimated at $875 million, which officers planned to reinvest in its offshore drilling fleet.

“We are delighted to have achieved this combination and are confident it will create additional opportunities for LeTourneau and its employees, “ Rowan president and CEO Matt Ralls said in the statement.

LeTourneau Technologies began in Vicksburg as a munitions plant in 1944. After World War II, founder L.G. LeTourneau moved into the manufacture of jackup drill rigs. The company shut down for two years before its purchase by Rowan.