Milacron Holdings Corp. CEO Tom Goeke has sent a letter to European customers confirming that the U.S.-based machinery manufacturer will end injection press production in Malterdingen, Germany.
As previously reported, Milacron will close the German plant this year. The original plan was to move press production to the Czech Republic, where Milacron has centered its Uniloy blow molding manufacturing.
But Milacron officials changed that plan, and said in January of this year that they are moving the Malterdingen assembly work to existing plants in India and the United States.
In Milacron's first-quarter conference call on April 26, Goeke told analysts the company is winding down manufacturing in Germany.
Goeke's letter to European customers says that "ultimately, we had to do what was right for our company," in confirming that the production site at Malterdingen will be shut down.
Milacron has changed its schedule for Malterdingen. Previously, in March 2016, Milacron announced that the site would be shuttered by the end of 2017.
However, citing a full European order book to the first quarter of 2018, the company said in June 2017 that it needed the operational capacity, and would keep Malterdingen open, in all probability until the end of 2019. The publicly held company changed course again, and officials decided to end manufacturing operations there this year.
Milacron will continue to have a significant presence in Germany and Europe. Moreover, the engineering, research and development, service, sales, marketing and aftermarket departments will remain in the Malterdingen region. As Goeke's letter stresses: "We plan to continue growing in this region."
To that end, Milacron will be showcasing two new injection molding machine lines at this year's Fakuma in Germany, in addition to numerous other products from the various product brands.
Plastics News Europe Editor Karen Laird contributed to this report.