NEWS
MOVINGON
Relocations and expansions across Europe
UK spring manufacturer expands with purchase of third factory E uropean Springs & Pressings, one of the UK’s leading spring and pressing suppliers, has doubled the size of its Cornwall operation with the purchase of a new 2000m2 site. The spring manufacturer, with factories in Redruth, Cornwall and Beckenham near London, has increased the size of its south-west operation to over 4000m2 with the purchase of new premises in Penryn, Cornwall. Michael Gibbs, managing director of European Springs & Pressings in Cornwall says: “Purchasing the new Penryn-based factory is a really exciting new chapter for everyone in European Springs & Pressings and a fantastic achievement in our 70th year. This significant investment allows for continual growth across our industrial and automotive product divisions and affords new opportunities for expansion across the sites in Redruth and Penryn.” Visit: www.europeansprings.com
Fortum-Rusnano wind power project in Russia
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he Fortum-Rusnano wind investment fund has taken the investment decision for a 200-megawatt (MW) wind power project in Russia. The project is the second of the total 1000 MW awarded to the fund in the Russian wind auction in June 2017. The wind farm is expected to start production during the first half of 2020. The first 50-MW project was started in late 2017 and is expected to start production during the first half of 2019. The Fortum-Rusnano wind investment fund is a 50/50 owned investment partnership to invest in wind power in Russia. The investment decisions related to the renewable capacities won by Fortum and the Fortum-Rusnano wind investment fund in 2017 and 2018 will be made on a case-by-case basis. Fortum’s maximum equity commitment is RUB 15 billion. In the longer term, Fortum seeks to maintain an asset-light structure by forming potential partnerships and other forms of cooperation. Visit: www.fortum.com
Expansion of K+S KALI Hattorf potash site approved
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he regional council in Kassel has approved the expansion of the Hattorf (Philippsthal) tailings pile. With this, the disposal of solid production residues which is an important requirement for producing potash at this site, has been ensured. Based in Kassel, K+S KALI GmbH extracts crude salts containing potas-
22 Industry Europe
sium, magnesium and sulphur from its six mines in Germany. These are used to produce a wide range of fertiliser specialties and preliminary products for many different technical, industrial and pharmaceutical applications. “The granted permit now provides the employees of the site, but also the entire company, a good deal of future security,” says K+S CEO Dr Burkhard Lohr.
Xtrac opens new factory
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erkshire-based automotive and motorsport specialist Xtrac welcomed the UK Prime Minister Theresa May on 8 November to open its new manufacturing facility extension that will ultimately represent a £22 million investment in UK manufacturing. Peter Digby, president of Xtrac, showed the Prime Minister around the company’s premises, which operates 24 hours a day to create advanced gearboxes used by motorsports teams around the world and in hybrid and electric high-performance road cars. The Prime Minister said: “Xtrac is a great example of how providing high quality apprenticeship programmes can help people to go on to have long-term and successful careers within the company that trained them. I am very pleased to be able to open this new facility which I hope will remain a leader in the manufacturing industry and inspire the next generation of engineers.” Xtrac has won numerous awards for its apprenticeship and undergraduate training programmes with one in seven (14%) of its 350 employees having started with the company as apprentices or undergraduates. Visit: www.xtrac.com
He continues: “After seven years of intensive work, it brings us one step closer to our goal of being able to use our full capacity for processing crude salt without restrictions caused by disposal bottlenecks. I am confident that we are on the right track regarding our wastewater disposal issues.” Visit: www.kali-gmbh.com
