NEWS
MOVINGON
Relocations and expansions across Europe
European Investment Bank support for Nissan’s LEAF
T
he European Investment Bank has agreed to support production of Nissan’s first electric car to be built in Europe and the company’s first European production of electric vehicle batteries. Agreement for €220 million funding from the European Union’s long-term lending institution was signed in Sunderland by Trevor Mann, Nissan Europe senior vice-president for Manufacturing, and Simon Brooks, European Investment Bank vice-president for the United Kingdom. European Investment Bank funding will support the integration of new machinery and tooling for production of the 100 per cent electric Nissan LEAF, the world’s first affordable, mass-market, pure-electric vehicle. The Nissan LEAF, the reigning
European Car of the Year, will go into production in Sunderland in 2013 with an initial production capacity of around 50,000 vehicles a year. This funding is also supporting construction of the company’s new European Mother Plant for the production of lithium-ion electric vehicle battery cells at the Sunderland Plant. Together the battery and LEAF projects represent a £420 million (€468.2 million) investment by Nissan, and are expected to maintain about 2250 jobs at Nissan and across the UK supply chain. The investment is also supported by a £20.7 million (€23.1 million) Grant for Business Investment (GBI) from the UK Government. Visit: www.newsroom.nissan-europe.com
WACKER expands Technical Centre in Mumbai
W
ACKER, the Munich-based chemical company, has expanded its technical centre in India. This centre of excellence located in Goregaon, a suburb of Mumbai, now also includes laboratories, applications technology and test equipment for polymer dispersions for coatings and paint applications. These dispersions are needed for interior and exterior paints in the coatings industry. The expansion not only enables WACKER to support its Indian customers to develop new and locally adapted formulations, but also encourages the exchange of know-how and promotes internationally recognised quality standards in India. The expansion was made necessary by India’s strong economic growth, particularly with regard to sophisticated coatings applications. This measure will help WACKER to further bolster its position as the market and technology leader for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions used as binders for demanding coatings and paint applications. Visit: www.wacker.com
Rolls-Royce to develop new Marine Service Centre in Hong Kong R olls-Royce, the global power systems company, has announced the expansion of its presence in Greater China with the development of a new Marine Service Centre on Hong Kong’s Tsing Yi Island, which is scheduled to open in 2012. The new Marine Service Centre will offer specialist support
services and engineering expertise to customers in Hong Kong. It will form an important component of the Rolls-Royce marine service network that covers the entire east coast of China, with existing facilities in Dalian, Guangzhou, and Shanghai already providing technical support and after-market care. The
Research unit dedicated to ecofriendly chemistry opens in China
research unit devoted to eco-friendly chemistry based in Shanghai (China). This international joint research unit is based at Rhodia’s research centre in Shanghai and will bring together research scientists from academia and industry in addition to a number of students. The aim of this research unit is to deliver new products and ecoefficient processes capable of reducing our
ON
November 4, 2011, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Rhodia, the Ecole Normale Superieure of Lyon and the East China Normal University officially opened the Laboratory of Eco-efficient Products and Processes, an international joint
20 Industry Europe
new facility will provide support for a variety of vessel types, including the large number of fast ferries that are in service between Hong Kong, Macau and the Pearl River Delta, many of which are installed with Rolls-Royce propulsion systems. Visit: www.Rolls-Royce.com
dependence on oil. The scientific challenges are so great that they call for the association of a great many key skills in order to rapidly overcome the various technological barriers. For this reason, the laboratory will house joint international research carried out by scientists from academic institutes in China and Europe working together with industrial partners. Visit: www.cnrs.fr
