Gurit says that it will transfer its UK prepreg business to its Spanish prepreg production facility by summer 2018.
According to the company, following recent change from the use of pre-impregnated fibers (prepregs) to infusion technology to make wind energy blades, Gurit faced non-utilisation in China and Canada and underutilization of its prepreg production capacity in Europe in recent years. As a result, the prepreg plants in China and Canada were closed in earlier years. In Europe, the decline of the wind energy prepreg market combined with an overall demand for marine, industrial and automotive prepreg has now reached a level which suggests consolidation in one well-utilised site, Gurit says.
The manufacturing of Formulated Products and the UK-based automotive components Technology Centre will remain unaffected from the aforementioned changes, while Gurit will continue to maintain the technology activity for its prepreg and formulated business in the UK.
The company estimates that the restructuring and transfer cost will result in one-off costs of approximately CHF 3.9 million of which CHF 3.1 million will be effective in the 2017 fiscal year and the remainder in 2018.
This story is reprinted from material from Gurit, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
