Visit MODERN CASTING’s Late-Breaking Metalcasting News at
www.moderncasting.com North America GM to Invest $59 Million in Defi ance Plant
Mueller to Close North Birmingham Ductile Pipe Plant
U.S. Pipe and Foundry Co. LLC,
GM’s Defi ance plant will produce the blocks for the company’s new Ecotec engines.
General Motors execu-
tives announced in a press conference in late February the company will invest $59 million in precision sand casting technology at its Defi ance, Ohio, metalcasting plant. Addressing employees and members
of the media gathered at the Tonawa- nda, N.Y., engine assembly plant, the executives announced a total investment of about a half a billion dollars in GM manufacturing. The Tonowanda plant will receive the lion’s share of the investment ($425 million), and GM’s Bay City, Mich., plant will receive a smaller chunk. Eighty jobs will be created at the
Defi ance plant in conjunction with the investment. The metalcaster will use the funds to build engine cylinder blocks
Visit
www.moderncasting.com to hear GM announce the expansion.
for the sec- ond genera-
tion of GM’s Ecotec engine. The engines, which should be avail-
able in GM cars in 2013, are
intended to increase fuel effi ciency and reduce noise. “This is part of GM’s entirely new con-
cept of making sure the planet is safe,” said New York Governor David Paterson. “It’s going to reclaim the U.S. as the great- est automotive producer in the world.” GM installed precision sand casting technology at the Defi ance plant in Spring 2007 with an investment of $61 million. Precision sand casting involves the pres- surized fi lling of resin-bonded sand molds with high dimensional accuracy. In engine block building, the process allows the use of cast-in-place iron liners.
MC Neenah Enterprises Files for Bankruptcy Reorganization
Municipal castings giant Neenah Enterprises Inc., Neenah, Wis., an- nounced it has fi led voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in order to restructure its balance sheet. According to a press release issued
by the company, Neenah will continue to do business as usual throughout the restructuring process. “We’ve been going through efforts
to streamline operations and reduce expenses over the last few years, with
MODERN CASTING / March 2010
the intent of keeping suffi cient liquid- ity to move operations forward,” said Robert Ostendorf Jr., the company’s president and chief executive. “We will emerge from this stronger and more fi nancially sound than ever. There is a bright future ahead.” Neenah, which fi led for protection in
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Dis- trict of Delaware, also announced it has reached an agreement in principle with key creditor constituencies on the terms of a plan for reorganization that proposes
to reduce its debt by approximately $220 million while providing 100% recoveries for its suppliers and vendors. Neenah said it also has received commitments for up to $140 million in debtor-in-possession fi nancing to fund continuing operations, pending the Bankruptcy Court’s approval. Neenah Enterprises is the indirect par-
ent holding company of Neenah Foundry Co., which along with its subsidiaries manufactures iron castings and steel forg- ings for the heavy municipal market and selected industrial market segments. MC
11
Birmingham, Ala., will close its duc- tile iron pipe casting plant in North Birmingham, Ala., by March 31, ac- cording to an announcement by par- ent company Mueller Water Products Inc., Atlanta. The plant closure is expected to eliminate approximately 260 positions. The company said production from the North Birmingham plant will be moved to U.S. Pipe’s Bessemer, Ala., and Union City, Calif., facilities. Over the past several years, U.S. Pipe
has invested in a new automated ductile iron pipe casting process. A metalcast- ing facility for the new technology was built adjacent to its existing Bessemer plant and launched in September 2008. According to a Mueller press release, the new technology and the downturn in the overall economy and its end markets has forced U.S. Pipe to address excess capacity in its other plants. “The performance of our automated manufacturing process has exceeded our expectations for quality, effi - ciency and overall productivity,” said Gregory Hyland, chairman, Mueller’s president and chief executive offi cer. “As a result, we are able to consolidate production, eliminate fi xed costs and improve productivity by leveraging the investment we made in upgrad- (continued on page 14)
INDUSTRY NEWS
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