GF Automotive, a division of GF, and its joint venture partner Linamar Corp. have selected Henderson County (North Carolina, US) as location for GF Linamar LLC’s first light metal die-casting plant.
The official signing of the contract by the management of Linamar Corp. and GF Automotive was attended by a delegation of representatives of North Carolina which included governor Pat McCrory and Henderson County.
GF Automotive and Linamar announced their joint venture named GF Linamar LLC in mid-July 2015 to combine leading expertise in casting and machining. The new plant will be located on a 57-acres site at the Ferncliff Industrial Park in Mills River. It will produce light metal components for the North American market, starting with body and structure parts for a European car manufacturer. The initial investment amounts to approx. USD 100 million. Start of operations is planned for mid-2017.
“We appreciate very much the warm welcome and the support from the state of North Carolina and the Henderson County authorities”, comments Yves Serra, CEO of GF. “The location is ideal for us and we look forward to a prosperous future for our joint venture in the US”.
“We are very pleased to announce that we have selected Henderson County, North Carolina, as the site of the GF Linamar LLC plant,” stated Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar. “This will be our fourth plant in North Carolina, an area where we have thrived thanks to a fantastic workforce and a great business environment. It is rapidly becoming an important hub for us to serve our customers in the southern US and North America overall.”
Linamar Corp. was founded in 1966 by the Hasenfratz family and is listed at the Toronto Stock Exchange. With its 48 worldwide manufacturing facilities and a workforce of 19 500 employees the company generated sales of CHF 3.1 billion (CAD 4.2 billion) in 2014. Its reputation is built upon its expertise in precision machining of metallic powertrain products for the automotive industry.
GF Automotive is one of the leading automotive suppliers worldwide and specializes in lightweight solutions for the automotive industry. It produces more than 600 000 tons of iron, aluminum and magnesium components at nine production plants in Germany, Austria and China. With 5 000 employees, GF Automotive generated sales of about CHF 1.4 billion in 2014.
