Finland: Valmet plans large-scale battery production
The development and manufacturing service provider Valmet Automotive is planning to set up large-scale production of battery packs for the automotive industry in Salo, Finland. The facility is said to open this year with more than 300 employees.
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Valmet Automotive explained the decision to manufacture in the southern Finnish town of Salo as follows: “Salo offers available technology know-how, labour and infrastructure for battery production,” according to a company statement. Connecting the local IoT Campus will also allow Valmet to take over facilities previously used in mobile phone production.
As the battery plant is planned to employ more than 300 persons, including both blue-collar as well as white-collar positions, recruitment is set to begin soon.
Valmet’s manufacturing strategy is adapting to the growing electric mobility market, and the company statement says the facility is to reflect Valmet’s intention to become “a major player in the field of electric vehicle solutions,” as well as preparing the grounds for what they call a “Finnish battery cluster,” according to Jarkko Sairanen, chairman of the board for the company.
Valmet Automotive is a provider of automotive engineering, vehicle manufacturing, EV and convertible roof systems. They employ 6,000 professionals in Finland, Germany, Poland and Spain. Foxconn of China is among the shareholders.
Update 21.11.2019: After construction work started in May 2019, Valmet Automotive has now started production of battery packs for the automotive industry in Salo, Finland. The plant has been built in a former cell phone manufacturing plant and completely transformed to meet the requirements of high-volume automotive battery pack production. Production capacity will now be gradually increased until the planned production capacity is reached at the beginning of 2020. During this process, the number of employees is to rise to around 300.
valmet-automotive.com, valmet-automotive.com (update)
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