AGC Aerospace, Bridgestone and Peterbilt expanding US plants.
Despite the grim outlook for the manufacturing sector, five companies have recently revealed large-scale projects aimed at expanding their production capacities.
AGC Aerospace, Bridgestone Tire and Peterbilt are undertaking major expansions for their US factories while Daimler AG and Magna International have announced construction of new facilities in Germany and China, respectively.
Texas Truck Expansion
Peterbilt Motors Company just broke ground on a 102,000-sq-ft expansion to its heavy-duty truck manufacturing facility.
The company began a multi-phase plant improvement project last year to increase its overall production and testing capacity with additions to its receiving and storage facilities.
“This expansion is Peterbilt’s largest facility investment since the construction of the Denton plant and it will make a significant impact on our operational efficiencies,” said Darrin Siver, Peterbilt general manager and PACCAR VP.
The Denton, Texas expansion is expected to be operational by January 2017.
Idaho Aerospace Expansion
AGC AeroComposites has unveiled plans for a 50,000-sqft expansion to its Hayden, Idaho facility.
The expansion will provide additional production and clean room space as well as a new executive office suite. Currently, the 80,000-sqft facility features six clean rooms and a variety of aerospace manufacturing equipment, including three autoclaves and six 4- and 5-axis CNC machines.
“This expansion signifies our commitment to invest and grow our business,” said Wayne Exton, CEO of AGC AeroComposites. “We want to have a world-class facility that accommodates our current needs and gives us the capacity needed for the future.”
Groundbreaking is scheduled to take place in March 2016 and the expansion is expected to be completed in late 2016.
North Carolina Tire Plant Expansion
Bridgestone Americas Tire has broken ground on an expansion to the company’s passenger tire manufacturing facility in Wilson, North Carolina.
The five-year, USD$164-million investment will expand the production capacity of the 42-year-old tire plant.
The first two phases of the investment will focus on the addition of 167,000 sq ft of manufacturing space to accommodate new tire assembly machines, materials handling systems, curing presses and other associated equipment.
The last time the plant expanded was in 1999, with the addition of 85,000 sq ft of production and storage space.
This latest expansion is expected to increase plant capacity by 3,000 tires per day, bringing daily production up to 35,000 tires by 2018.
Battery Factory in Germany
Daimler AG is investing USD$557 million (€500 million) in the construction of a new lithium-ion battery factory. The factory will produce batteries for electric and hybrid Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
This new plant will significantly expand the capacities of Deutsche ACCUmotive, a Daimler subsidiary which manufactures stationary battery storage for private and industrial applications.
“To get closer to fully electric driving, we keep investing big in the key component of emission-free vehicles: powerful batteries,” said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz cars.
Groundbreaking on the new factory is planned for fall 2016 with operations beginning in summer 2017.
Auto OEM Plant in China
Magna International has announced that it will open a new seating manufacturing facility in China to supply Geely’s Volvo Car Group.
The 56,000-sqft facility will produce complete seating systems for a small crossover utility vehicle, the first to be produced from Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture platform.
“We are excited to bring our latest seating technologies to the China market and build a world-class just-in-time plant to serve our customers,” said Jim Chen, VP and managing director of Magna Seating in Asia.
This will be Magna Seating’s fifth manufacturing facility in China and the 33rd for Magna overall.
Construction is already underway in Jiju District, Taizhou and is set to be completed by mid-2016.
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