Green Tokai Co. expanding Ohio factory
BROOKVILLE, OHIO - Auto supplier Green Tokai Co. Ltd. is planning a $7 million expansion in Brookville to keep up with the pace of new business.
The company has injection molding, plastic extrusion and rubber extrusion at its facility and also produces exterior parts with a paint-replacement film that is used by several automakers. The expansion will involve all three molding processes, according to the Ohio Department of Development.
The company has received loans from the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund and Ohio Automotive Zero Percent Financing Initiative to help finance the project. Green Tokai plans to acquire land and a building near its existing operations and hire another 25 people in addition to the 695 employees already in Brookville.
The expansion follows the construction of a 175,000-square-foot warehouse, which opened in 2005. Green Tokai is a subsidiary of Tokai Kogyo Co. Ltd. of Nagoya, Japan.
Alcoa shuttering Texas auto parts plant
PITTSBURGH - Alcoa Inc. will close an automotive injection molding plant in El Paso, Texas, because of a decline in orders from U.S.-based automakers.
Alcoa will begin laying off the 100 employees in El Paso beginning in February and the facility is slated to close by the end of March. The plant is part of Alcoa's AFL Automotive business in Farmington Hills, Mich.
AFL Automotive human resources manager Dale DeYoung said the El Paso operation molds parts for automotive power distribution box assemblies. Production will be relocated to an AFL Automotive plant in Mattawan, Mich., and to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
He did not have details on the amount of equipment in the 11-year-old El Paso operation or the equipment's destination after the closure.
``Customer order volumes have decreased due to the downturn in the auto industry,'' DeYoung said in a telephone interview. The slowdown left AFL Automotive with too much capacity, he said.
AFL makes electronic and electrical distribution products for vehicles and related instrumentation and assemblies. It operates 11 plants in North America, although not all mold plastics.
DeYoung said the closure is a small part of Pittsburgh-based Alcoa's recently announced plan to consolidate plants and eliminate about 6,700 jobs around the world to save $125 million a year.
APW Enclosure seeks court protection
ANAHEIM, CALIF. - Contract electronics manufacturer APW Enclosure Systems Inc. of Anaheim virtually shut down operations this month after filing for Chapter 11 protection from creditors. About 200 jobs were cut recently, with some supervisors remaining on duty.
The petition was filed Dec. 4 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
APW Enclosure Systems produced and integrated housings and systems for electronic products. The Anaheim facility is 165,000 square feet.
The plant does engineered plastics processing, structural foam molding and solid-wall injection molding. The site also made molds and did metalworking.
In late 2005, the electronics packaging subsidiary of Pentair Inc.'s enclosures group purchased a related APW Enclosure Solutions plant in Poway, Calif.
APW Enclosure Systems is a unit of APW Ltd. of Hamilton, Bermuda, with principal offices in Waukesha, Wis. The parent firm has another enclosures manufacturing division in Chandlers Ford, England, and multiple operations elsewhere, including China.
PN seeking input for economic report
AKRON, OHIO - Attention processors: Plastics News is compiling its 2007 Economic Outlook for North America.
To participate in our survey please visit www.plastics news.com/outlook. Questions? Please contact Hollee Keller at [email protected]