NEWS Electrolux restructures and invests
Sweden’s Electrolux Group has announced plans to outsource parts of its current manufacturing in Hungary and invest in its refrigerator plant in Nyíregyháza, as part of a series of wider efficiency measures. This will lead to restructuring charges of about SEK 1.6bn, which will be taken in its Q3 accounts. As part of an ongoing SEK 8bn
programme of spending on manufac- turing, Electrolux has decided to invest some €100m in automation, digitalisa- tion and innovation capabilities for high-end refrigerators at Nyíregyháza. It will outsource the production of vacuum cleaners and a “significant part” of freestanding refrigerators from its other Hungarian site at Jászberény, at a cost of some 800 jobs.
Grenadier to be built in Wales
Ineos Automotive has announced that its “stripped back, utilitarian” 4x4 vehicle, which is the personal vision of CEO Jim Ratcliffe, will be manufactured in a dedicated facility at Bridgend, UK. This will create 200 jobs at first and up to 500 in the long term. Production is due to start in 2021. The car will be called
the Grenadier after the pub where the idea was conceived. The company will also be investing in a sub-assembly plant in Estarreja, Portugal, to produce the body and chassis in conjunction with supply chain partners. �
www.ineos.com
4 The company has also “identified
opportunities to improve efficiency in both the consumer and professional organisations”. This follows on from a decision taken on 31 January to spin off its Professional Products business area as a separate company, and to create four regionally focused businesses, plus a reshaped consumer group. The resulting redundancies should
Above: Electrolux will outsource the production of vacuum cleaners it currently makes in Hungary
lead to about 875 job cuts in non-pro- duction positions. Like the cuts in Hungary, this is all subject to consulta- tions with unions. “The activities will more than offset increased ongoing costs related to the separation of Professional Products and result in a more streamlined setup for the consumer business,” Electrolux said. �
www.electroluxgroup.com
Automotive first for BASF Vision
BASF’s semi-crystalline PA Ultramid Vision has been used in a car interior for the first time, in the window regulator module of an unnamed German OEM. As well as high resistance to UV, temperature, scratching and chemicals, this material is claimed to display very high light transmission with low light scattering compared to opaque standard PAs. Ultramid Vision was selected, according to Dr Rainer
Xalter, product developer in BASF’s Performance Materials division, for good adhesion to the glass fibre-reinforced switch housing and homogeneous light transmittance, among other things. French interior specialist Valeo, which developed the part, said that another key advantage over amorphous, transparent materials is that it can be repeatedly exposed to aggressive media like sun cream, thus making it suitable for backlit switches and buttons. �
www.basf.com
LyondellBasell boosts Knapsack PP plant
LyondellBasell has started up a fifth produc- tion line at its site at Knapsack in Germany, adding 25,000 tonnes/yr of new capacity taking the total to more than 200,000 tonnes. The move is the latest in a series of
debottlenecking and investment projects across its European operations. It makes the Knapsack site the world’s largest PP com-
INJECTION WORLD | October 2019
pounding facility, according to the company. The company said it expected demand for its lightweight polymer compounds to grow in automotive for both conventionally- powered vehicles, where they can contrib- ute to reduced CO2 emissions, and in the coming generation of electric vehicles. �
www.lyondellbasell.com
www.injectionworld.com
PHOTO: ELECTROLUX
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