INDUSTRY NEWS
ME Elecmetal, Santiago, Chile, announced it will spend $12.2 million on an expansion at its metalcasting facility in Duluth, Minn., less than a year after completing a previous improvement at the facility. According to Bill Grau, Duluth
ME Elecmetal to Expand Duluth Casting Plant Again “We went through a couple phases,”
plant manager, ME Elecmetal will add a third arc furnace and additional heat treating capacity to keep pace with the molding capacity increases result- ing from last year’s expansion. Te investment is expected to yield a 30% melting capacity increase, bringing the plant to 160 metric tons per day.
Grau said. “Last year, [we did] a $10 million expansion to eliminate bottle- necks, create more space, improve flow and lower our [work in process]. We had additional mold line capacity, but we couldn’t make any more metal. Ev- erything we added last year was done with this in mind.” In 2011, ME Elecmetal spent $23.4
million combined at its Duluth and Tempe, Ariz., metalcasting facili- ties. Grau said the expansions were performed in response to growing demand in the mining industry for the
Nissan Casting Plant Wins Mercedes Block Through Daimler Collaboration Nissan’s Decherd, Tenn., manufac-
turing facility, which maintains metal- casting capability, will begin building a new line of engines in 2014 as part of a growing relationship between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler. In the latest step in the collabora-
tion, the Decherd plant will produce Mercedes-Benz 4-cylinder engines for Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz automo- biles. Installed capacity is expected
to be 250,000 units per year once full ramp-up is achieved. Nissan’s Decherd powertrain as-
sembly plant manufactures 4-, 6- and 8-cylinder engines for U.S.-produced Nissan and Infiniti vehicles. Te plant houses crankshaft forging and cylinder block casting operations. In 2011, Decherd produced more than 580,000 engines on a covered area of more than 1.2 million sq. ft. (111,000 sq. m).
company’s mill liners. “Mine sites are opening up every-
where, and everyone is running super hard,” he said. “Te third arc furnace is booked when it comes onboard.” Grau said permitting for the new
equipment has been obtained, and the company is expecting the furnaces to be delivered by July. By October, the furnace and heat treating line are expected to be in full production. “Te marketing forecast is just exploding,” Grau said. “Tis was something we could do quickly and capitalize on it.”
“In the context of our Mercedes- Benz 2020 growth strategy, we have de- cided we will expand [local] production capacities,” said Dieter Zetsche, chair- man of the Daimler board of manage- ment and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. “Trough the strategic extension of our cooperation with Renault-Nissan, we can realize near-market engine produc- tion in the NAFTA region on attractive economic terms.” Te collaboration marks the first
production of Mercedes-Benz engines in the North America Free Trade region. According to a press release issued by Nissan, the Decherd plant’s location and supply chain position ensure a direct supply of engines for Mercedes-Benz C-Class automobiles that are assembled in Daimler’s vehicle plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “Tis is…our most significant
project outside of Europe so far,” said Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. “Localized capacity reduces exposure to foreign exchange rates while rapidly enabling good business development in North America.”
Daimler and the Renault-Nissan
The Nissan Decherd plant maintains metalcasting capacity to produce cylinder blocks for the engines it assembles.
8 | MODERN CASTING February 2012
Alliance launched their collaboration in April 2010. It includes an equity ex- change that gives the Renault-Nissan Alliance a 3.1% stake in Daimler and Daimler a combined 3.1% interest in Renault and Nissan.
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