The investment, expected to be completed by April 2016, will include a new casthouse, a new indirect extrusion press line for production of hard alloy bars and profiles, a new drawing line, and a complete refurbishment of an existing extrusion line to meet increased demand for drawn bars.
The investment follows a EUR15 million investment announced in May 2014 that included a new casthouse and extrusion line to increase production of hard alloy extrusions by almost 10,000 tons per year. Both investments further Constellium's strategy of boosting production capacity of high-volume specialty alloy products and extrusions to supply primarily the European automotive market. The plant in Decin mainly serves European automotive Tier One Manufacturers in Germany, Czech Republic, France, Italy, and Switzerland.
"Constellium's continued investment in the plant in Decin will further expand our production capacity and flexibility for aluminium hard alloy bars and profiles to meet increasing demand from our automotive customers across Europe," said Paul Warton, President of Constellium's Automotive Structures and Industry business unit. "The investment we announced today is expected to increase Decin total shipments by 20 percent, from 60,000 metric tons in 2014 to 72,500 metric tons by 2018."