Fairfield auto supplier expanding to make aluminium vehicle parts

An automotive supplier in Fairfield is expanding to make aluminium vehicle parts for one of its automaker customers, a company manager told Fairfield City Council members at their meeting Monday.

According to market reports, Pacific Manufacturing of Fairfield, a Tier 1 auto supplier to Toyota, was planning an approximately $50 million, 72,000-square-foot building expansion at its facilities on Seward Road. Expansion plans could also add about 60 new jobs over the next three years.

The project received approval Monday for the Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit from state authorities, as well as property tax incentives from the city government.

“With this new expansion, we’ll expand to a new customer, which will be Subaru. This allows us to advance in new technology, meaning aluminium, more aluminium parts for automotive makers to make lightweight cars to get better gas mileage,” said Kim Hall, general manager of purchasing for Pacific.

Fairfield’s labor pool and new technologies were credited by the company for the new investment, Hall said during discussion at the council meeting before incentives were approved.

Pacific Manufacturing is one of Fairfield’s largest employers of about 540 people, according to the city. The auto parts maker produces metal stamping products and molded plastic for automobiles and tire valve products, according to Pacific’s website.

Most of the new $50 million investment is expected to be spent on new equipment, and Hall added that the larger building space will have room to house three large stamping machines.

Aluminium is now second to steel as the most used material in vehicles, according to trade group The Aluminum Association.

“We are in a multi-material world. We’re talking here mainly about the body, but most modern cars use aluminium castings and 80 percent of the aluminium in a car is cast. The next place to lightweight with aluminium would be in the body,” Doug Richman, vice president of engineering for Kaiser Aluminum and chair of the Technical Committee of the Aluminum Association’s Aluminum Transportation Group, recently told “Automotive World.”

National auto sales climbed to a record 17.47 million new vehicles sold in 2015, according to Autodata Corp.