Volvo Construction Equipment and VT LeeBoy have finalized a strategic alliance agreement for LeeBoy to supply certain pavers and road wideners to Volvo dealers under the Blaw-Knox brand. LeeBoy will also take full responsibility for product support of the machines, including the existing field population.

The equipment will be marketed under the Blaw-Knox brand under a five-year brand licensing agreement with Volvo Construction Equipment and distributed through Volvo road machinery dealers who will thus maintain access to these models in order to continue serving their customers in a variety of road development operations. Volvo acquired the Blaw-Knox product line in its purchase of the Ingersoll Rand road machinery business in 2007.

“The agreement with LeeBoy enables Volvo to concentrate its road machinery technical and engineering expertise and production operations on high-volume Volvo paving, compaction and motor grader equipment that serves our industrial and commercial customer bases,” said Göran Lindgren, president of Volvo Construction Equipment North America. “In addition, this strong relationship fosters other growth opportunities for the Blaw-Knox brand, which will give Volvo Construction Equipment dealers in North America, Australia and New Zealand access to the broadest product offering of any manufacturer in the asphalt paving industry.”

Production of upgraded and redesigned Blaw-Knox road wideners (models RW100 and RW195D) and pavers (models PF150 and PF161) is expected to begin within the next few months at the LeeBoy production facilities in Lincolnton, N.C.

Grede Foundries assets to be combined with Citation Corp. to form Grede Holdings; Citation CEO to lead new company One of the oldest names serving the equipment and vehicle industries has gotten a new lease on life. Citation Corp. and Grede LLC announced the completion of a series of transactions resulting in the combination of certain assets of Milwaukee-based Grede Foundries, Inc. with Citation Corp. to form a new company named Grede Holdings LLC.

The transactions include the closing of the purchase of substantially all the assets of Grede Foundries by Grede LLC, an entity controlled by a private investment fund managed by Wayzata Investment Partners LLC. Just before Christmas, a bankruptcy judge had approved Grede Foundries' agreement to sell its principal operating plants to a Wayzata affiliate. The new company will be controlled by Wayzata and will be led by Doug Grimm, who will be the chairman, president and chief executive officer and is the former CEO of Citation. The new Grede will be headquartered in Novi, Mich.

"The combination of Citation and Grede creates, what we believe is, the most diversified foundry company in North America with one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry,” said Grimm. “We expect revenue to reach $600 million in 2010 through our combined business in the automotive, industrial and heavy truck markets.

“The significant equity investment from Wayzata and GSC has reduced total funded debt of the two companies by 80%, or $110 million. This gives us a best-in-class financial profile, allows us to invest appropriately and weather economic cyclicality moving forward.”

The new Grede has 2700 employees, 14 foundries and two machining facilities with nearly 600,000 tons of iron casting capacity. The company will have an expanded manufacturing portfolio with capability to produce and machine ductile, gray, high silicon moly and lost foam iron cast component parts and assemblies ranging from 1 lb. to 2000 lb.

The new Grede organization is in place and will continue to evolve through the integration process. Employees at the former Grede headquarters in Milwaukee will likely relocate to the Novi, Mich. and Menomonee Falls, Wis., facilities in 2010.

Remy International, Inc. announced the launch of a new business unit that will accelerate its efforts to provide high-output electric drive motors for the emerging markets of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles and equipment. Kevin Quinn will lead the newly formed business unit, Remy Electric Motor Technologies. Prior to joining Remy, Quinn was owner and managing director of Power Technology Ventures, a business development firm specializing in emerging power technologies.

"We are projecting rapid growth over the next five years in the Electric Vehicle/Hybrid Electric Vehicle market, and Remy has some terrific technology for these applications,” said Remy International's CEO John Weber. “We expect to build a $500 million global business unit for Remy International and we're investing the resources to make this happen. We're staffing up our engineering, sales and market development functions immediately, and we'll be expanding our manufacturing capacity by the end of this year."

Late last year, Remy International introduced an electric motor for hybrid and hybrid-electric vehicles. Based on Remy's patented High Voltage Hairpin technology, the the HVH250 motor is designed to provide high power and torque density and is the first in a series of new off-the-shelf products planned for the automotive, truck, bus and heavy equipment markets.

With multiple manufacturing sites in North America and Europe, Remy has the capacity to produce more than 100,000 electric motors annually. Remy's expansion of this product line is being funded in part by recent Dept. of Energy grants aimed at accelerating the commercialization of next generation electric vehicle technologies. Some of the grant funds will also be available to support customer costs associated with the integration of the motor/generator system.

Komatsu-Cummins Engine Co. (KCEC), a joint engine manufacturing venture between Komatsu and Cummins, announced that it has produced its 500,000th engine at its Oyama, Japan, facility. The joint venture was formed in November 1993 and the first engine was produced at Oyama in 1995.

"Reaching the half-million engine mark represents another significant achievement in the long-established partnership between Komatsu and Cummins," said Eric Neal, general manager of Cummins-Komatsu Business Worldwide. "The KCEC engine plant is highly regarded by both Komatsu and Cummins for its outstanding levels of quality, productivity and commitment to delivery.”

The joint venture has also announced that the Oyama engine plant will move forward to produce the next generation of Tier 4 engines for the parent companies. The 3.3 L, 4.5 L and 6.7 L displacement engines currently produced at Oyama will be upgraded to meet Tier 4 interim emissions regulations as they are phased in by power band and effect date in Japan, North America and Europe. The current 8.3 L engine produced at Oyama will be available for Tier 4 as a 9 L version, offering a higher power output, Cummins said.

Mahle GmbH announced the acquisition of the majority share of Behr Industry GmbH, a specialist in engine thermal management and air conditioning systems. Financial details were not provided and the acquisition is subject to the approval of antitrust authorities.

In 2008, Behr Industry achieved sales of approximately €206 million and currently employs around 900 employees in five locations in Germany and the U.S. Its main products are cooling and air conditioning systems for railway and special vehicles, buses, ships, construction and agricultural machinery and stationary heavy-duty engines for power generation.

“With its products in the area of thermal management, Behr Industry is an ideal addition to the portfolio of our own industrial activities for large engines and stationary filtration,” said Prof. Dr. Heinz K. Junker, Mahle Group chairman. “Like in the automotive sector, filtration and cooling are closely connected. By cross-selling effects and penetrating new business fields such as renewable energies or decentralized power generation, we see substantial growth potential for a new business unit Mahle Industry, coupled with synergy effects. Furthermore, we aim to focus our industrial activities more intensively to international growth outside Europe.”

Going forward, the company will operate as Mahle Behr Industry and be incorporated into Mahle's existing industrial activities for large engines and industrial filtration. A new business unit - Mahle Industry - will be created, with expected annual sales of about €500 million.