JUNE 2008
INOPLAST AT IAA EXHIBITION
iNoPLAST
will be present at IAA in Hanover, international show for commercial vehicle
industry, which takes place from September 22d to October 2d 2008.
R & I : REDUCTION OF CO2 EMISSIONS
Controlling
climate change is a complex and global challenge and needs concerted efforts
embracing all areas of society.
A standard project, issued from EC applicable in 2012, will impose a CO2
(Carbon dioxide) emission reduction to 120g/km to the OEM's. Beyond these
efforts on motorization, the weight reduction will be an inevitable parameter.
According these developments iNoPLAST has decided to accelerate its innovation program for passenger car structural components basing on its experience on Renault Mégane load floor, Clio, Laguna, Kangoo fender carriers and roof frames for Peugeot Citroën.
This
development will be focused on :
- Rear load floors
- Motor hood inner skins
- Structural Front Bloc components including fender carriers
- Roof structural components
MAY 2008
FROM A PLASTIC OMNIUM PRESS RELEASE DATED ON APRIL 24, 2008
Growth
in the automotive businesses remained strong in the first quarter, in a
depressed business environment shaped by sharp declines in production, which
dropped by 5% in Western Europe and 10% in North America.
The increase in revenue was led by higher sales of automotive modules and
tooling (up €30 million) as well as deeper penetration in fast-growing
automobile producing regions in Asia and South America.
The development of synergies continued in the Urban Systems Division, which now
accounts for 18% of consolidated revenue. A plan to restructure subsidiaries in
Europe is now underway.
Market
conditions remain difficult with :
- A significant decline in automobile production in North America and Europe, a situation that was recently exacerbated by sporadic strikes.
- Raw material prices that continue to rise.
- The continued depreciation of the dollar against the euro.
To
respond to these challenges and sustainably improve its performance, Compagny
Plastic Omnium has stepped up its worldwide cost-reduction program, in
particular with the closing of automotive plants in Blenheim, Canada and Juiz
de Fora, Brazil.
Against this backdrop, net profit will be substantially lower in first-half
2008. Barring any change in market conditions, the objective is still for an
improvement in full-year operating margin.
APRIL 2008
COMPOSITEC : OUR FUTURE IS SUSTAINABLE
PLASTILIEN Allizé-Plasturgie Editorial March/April 2008 :
The 21st century
will be the century of sustainable development.
No enterprise can
devise its strategy if it does not include all the components necessary for an
economic development which is compatible with the future of our planet.
Composite
materials provide a very good asset in this area. And indeed, since their
implementation requires less weight and low energy consumption, they show an
extremely favorable ecobalance.
In the frame of
the ECRC (European Composite Recycling Services Company), of which I am the
chairman, we have stressed the advantage of composite relative to other
technologies in several Life Cycle Assessments (LCA).
For all that, and
more specifically for the thermoset composites, a certain number of significant
constraints remain (industry for recycling the end-of-life vehicles,
utilization of a certain number of chemicals or products from the oil
industry,…) that require advancing the environmental effort in order to find
composite materials that are truly "green".
In Western Europe,
owing to the importance of labor costs in the production prices, we could be
concerned by the risks of delocalization for the transformation of composites.
And yet, since these are composites which implementation is complex and where
know-how is acquired on the field, it is quite possible to remain competitive
provided innovation and training are intensified.
It is with this in
mind that I have defined the strategy for COMPOSITEC (Resources Center in
Composite materials) based in Chambéry and in North-Ardèche, of which I have
been recently elected chairman. The aim is to make COMPOSITEC a key expert in
the Rhône-Alpes area - and also over the entire French territory - and
therefore become a tool for the creation of new enterprises and the development
of the existing SMEs.
I am quite
optimistic regarding the development of composites despite the pressures on the
prices of raw materials and the increasingly intense pressure from our clients
because composites are recent materials which sources of progress are still
considerable.
Pascal DIAZ
Chief Executive of iNoPLAST - Chairman
of Compositec
FEBRUARY 2008
Xieno wins first big automotive order
Xieno, a 61%-owned subsidiary of iNoPLAST located in
Jiangyn, China, has posted to date sales of 17m€ primarily gained in
the truck sector and based on the SMC, RTM and Hand Layer Up
technologies.
It has been more than one year since Xieno launched
its diversification towards the Chinese market. And its maiden success
is the realization of a study and the prototype phase for a sport
vehicle built by carmaker Hama.
DPCA (Dong Feng Peugeot Citroën
Automobiles) has just awarded Xieno the contract for manufacturing the
Technical Front Panels for vehicles X7 (Citroën C5) and W2 (replacing
the Peugeot 407).
This contract comes with 1.2m€ in sales and it
will be developed by the Xieno teams with support provided by the
iNoPLAST job experts.
SOP is planned for November 2009 with deliveries made to the DPCA site of Wuhan at the rate of 570 parts a day.
Production
will take place in the new Xieno building and will follow procedures
and operating modes similar to the European standards, with SMC
material produced by Xieno.
Thanks to this contract, iNoPLAST is consolidating its position as a global supplier with their traditional clients.