JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 8

COMPANIES

in partnership with JEC Composites E-letter
Aerospace industry expands in Metro Atlanta Web Industries announced on the 30th of March 2010 its decision to expand its operations in Metro Atlanta. The expansion, projected to create 25 highwage engineering and technician jobs, will provide Web Industries the opportunity to service new and expanding large-scale composite aircraft programs for commercial and military use - such as the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The company’s ten-plus million dollar investment includes facilities, equipment, infrastructure and a world class composites Research and Development Centre. The Metro-Atlanta facility will include over 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space to support their current and future facilities needs. The location will be one of the largest facilities Web Industries occupies in North America. www.webindustries.com Oxeon expands its production capacity Oxeon is strengthening its position as the market leader for ultra lightweight spread tow carbon reinforcements by adding new capacity in its Borås facility; as announced on the 2nd of April 2010. The company just commissioned a new line and are now about to place orders for more. The great success for sporting goods and race cars using TeXtreme® has propelled the demand for the spread tow fabric to new, high levels. www.oxeon.se the outstanding stock of Triumph and will be subject to certain lock up provisions. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals and approval of Triumph shareholders and is expected to be completed in July, 2010. www.triumphgroup.com

COMPANIES

Development
SGL and BMW to built a new carbon fibre plant in USA The two groups announced on April 6, 2010 that their joint venture, SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC, will build a state-of-the-art carbon fiber manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, WA. During the initial phase, US$ 100 million will be invested and 80 local jobs will be created. The fibres manufactured at Moses Lake will be used exclusively for BMW Group’s upcoming Megacity Vehicle. In February of this year, BMW Group announced that this new vehicle for urban mobility – set to be launched before 2015 under a BMW sub-brand – will be assembled in Leipzig, Germany. www.sglgroup.com Zoltek forms new company for highvolume automotive applications Zoltek Companies, Inc. announced on April 12, 2010 the formation of a new subsidiary, called Zoltek Automotive, Inc., to speed the development of highvolume applications for lightweight carbon fibers within the automotive industry. More than a dozen Zoltek engineers and technicians from across Zoltek’s existing business, as well as Zoltek’s globally positioned sales people, will be joined in the new company by two highly regarded experts in automotive composite applications who will lead the Zoltek Automotive group in this effort. www.zoltek.com BASF expands Shanghai technical competence centre On April 07, 2010, BASF has inaugurated a new section of its Technical Competence Centre for intermediates at its Shanghai Pudong site. The new laboratory will specialize in epoxy systems for fibre-reinforced composites, which are used, for example, in wind turbine blades. BASF sells these systems under its Baxxodur® brand. The competence center integrates this new epoxy laboratory with BASF's existing PolyTHF laboratory, which will also expand the scope of its services. www.basf.com

Partnership
DSM expands composite resins business into Turkey DSM Composite Resins, through its subsidiary Euroresins Kompozit Ürünler Tic. Ltd. Sti, (a.k.a Euroresins Turkey) (ERT) has outlined its future growth plans for Turkey which include closer cooperation with Turkish company Dyo Boya Fabrikalari Sanayi ve Tic. A.S. (DYO). The arrangement, which means DSM will obtain a local source of supply of its standard resins in the rapidly growing Turkish polyester market, also involves a transfer of DYO’s existing unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) business to ERT. The entire deal, which will provide a basis for the introduction of DSM’s specialty and innovation grades to Turkey and the broader region, is intended to be completed by end of June 2010 subject to approval by the respective competition authorities. www.dsmcompositeresins.com

Opening
Futerro inaugurates PLA pilot unit, a first in Europe Futerro, a 50/50 joint venture established in September 2007 by Galactic and Total Petrochemicals, announced the inauguration of its bio-plastics production unit in Escanaffles, Belgium on Friday 16 April 2010. The purpose of this unit is to develop state-of-the-art technology for the production of PolyLactic Acid (PLA) bio-plastics from renewable vegetable sources developed by the two partners. The pilot unit, which has a capacity of 1,500 tonnes per year and represents an investment of 15 million euros, will be used to test and improve the successive steps in this technology. www.futerro.com

Mergers and Acquisitions
Triumph Group to acquire Vought Triumph Group, Inc. announced on the 23rd of March the signing of a definitive agreement to purchase Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. from The Carlyle Group for cash and stock consideration of $1.44 billion including the retirement of Vought debt, creating a company with industry-leading breadth of product and capabilities. The purchase consideration to Vought shareholders includes approximately 7.5 million shares and $525 million of cash. Post-closing, Carlyle will own approximately 31% of

jec composites magazine / No57 May 2010

http://www.triumphgroup.com http://www.sglgroup.com http://www.webindustries.com http://www.dsmcompositeresins.com http://www.zoltek.com http://www.oxeon.se http://www.basf.com http://www.futerro.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010