AT THE LEADING EDGE L
ast October, in a speech on inward investment into the USA, President Barack Obama referred to the Belgian aerospace company Asco as offering an excellent example of the kind of high technology manufacturing investment that was helping to revitalise the US economy. He was thinking specifically of Asco’s start-up of production at a new facility in Stillwater,
Oklahoma, just over a year after the acquisition of the site. “Asco currently realises some 40 per cent of its turnover in North and South America so the US was the obvious choice for a new production site to better serve our aircraft manufacturing customers in both regions and to accelerate our growth in these dynamic markets,” explains Asco President
and CEO Christian Boas. “We settled on the Oklahoma location because it is geographically central in the USA and is home to a cluster of aerospace companies. Stillwater itself is the site of the Oklahoma State University, which has an excellent reputation in aerospace and R&T, and to the Meridian Technology Centre, which offers excellent facilities for training and development. “We bought a 66,000m2 building there, formerly operated by Mercury Marine, in 2012 and the first $100m phase of our investment will be completed early next year. We are setting up a state-of-the-art production facility that will incorporate processes such as machining, heat and surface treatment and assembly in a vertically integrated plant that will offer our American customers a one-stop-shop. We have been supplying major customers such as Boeing, Bombardier and Embraer from our plants in Belgium, Germany and Vancouver for many years but the Oklahoma site will not only significantly increase our production capacity but will also reduce lead times and inventory and increase our flexibility in responding to the rapidly growing aircraft production rates of the major plane makers.”
