Galway based engineering group CF Tooling has opened a second facility in the Philippines and flagged a third plant there to help it launch its wind turbine business in Asia, which will also mean expansion of its Irish operations.
Mr John Flaherty CEO of CF said that "We will build our wind turbine business in Asia out of the Philippines. The technology and precision parts will come from home, like the alternators and electronic controllers, and we’ll do the blades and the masts here. We are not moving manufacturing out of Ireland, we are planning to expand in Ireland to meet demand from our growing global green energy business."
The new steel service centre allows CF to buy in bulk directly from the mill, and process its own steel, leaving it less sensitive to monthly price changes for steel.
Mr Ollie Freeney, the executive who runs the Philippines operation, said the group was aiming to open a facility later this year to build turbines for the Asia market, making it the first wind turbine company in the Philippines.
Mr Freeney said that "This steel processing plant represents an investment of USD 2.5 million and it has capacity for 30,000 tonnes of steel per year. We are also upgrading our machinery here, we are expecting USD 22 million in the Philippines this year. We've already done USD 9.5 million and this is the quiet half."
The opening ceremony included a full Mass and was attended by Lilia de Lima, director general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the government agency charged with attracting foreign investment into the southeast Asian nation.
CF's main business in the Philippines is building cabinet frames and chassis for APC Schneider.
Mr Flaherty said that 2011 was a key year in the building of CF's business, with EUR 96 million in revenues after EUR 76 million in 2010. In 2012, the company expects revenues of EUR 170 million, of which wind turbine business will account for EUR 45 million. He believes distributed power will play a huge part in the energy industry's future. He added that "Next year we expect wind to be EUR 100 million. It's how well we can market this global product."
Source - Irish Times
(www.steelguru.com)
