Charles S. Way, Secretary of Commerce of the State of South Carolina, USA, to visit ALD Vacuum Technologies in Hanau, Germany

ALD plans building a heat-treatment center in Richland County, South Carolina

Charles S. Way, Secretary of Commerce of the State of South Carolina, Wayne L. Sterling, Chief of Staff of the State of South Carolina's Department of Commerce, and Frank S. Newman, Head of Global Business Development at the agency, will be visiting the headquarters of multinational high-technology company ALD Vacuum Technologies AG in Hanau, Germany, on Thursday, 8 March, 2001. The reason for their visit is ALD's decision to build a heat-treatment center in South Carolina. Its major customer will be Siemens Automotive AG and its American subsidiary, Siemens Diesel Systems Technology, Inc.

The project involves a total investment of DM 27 million and will create 85 new jobs over the next six years. The land for the new facility was recently purchased and construction is scheduled to start in a few weeks.

The new center will focus on heat treating precision parts for common-rail fuel-injection systems for Diesel engines. Common-rail technology, such as that Mercedes uses on its CDI-models, is noted for yielding high power outputs, combined with extremely low fuel consumptions. ALD has developed a new, industrial, vacuum heat-treatment technology for manufacturing parts for high-pressure fuel-injection systems. This new technology will be introduced to the USA in conjunction with an "operator model," under which ALD will provide the manufacturing facility and processing technology, operate the facility using its own personnel, and assume overall responsibility for heat treating parts. The operation's viability is backed up by long-term contracts.

Siemens has already successfully introduced the new common-rail technology in Germany. Its American subsidiary will now proceed to introduce its application to fuel-injection systems for Diesel engines manufactured in the USA. ALD and Siemens decided in favor of the South Carolina location due to the favorable conditions the state provides for foreign investments, which is evidenced by the fact that numerous other German companies have elected to establish facilities there.

March, 7th 2001