The industry is constantly evolving. This month we cover Plastic Molding Technology, Volkswagon gives their plant workers a pay bump, a new assembly plant is opening in Arizona, and GMTA names a new Vice President of Sales. Keep on reading for more information.

Tide Rock Acquires Plastic Molding Technology

Tide Rock Holdings, a San Diego-based holding company, recently acquired Plastic Molding Technology, a full-service precision injection molding company located in El Paso, Texas. The company has nearly 50 years of experience serving an array of markets, including electrical, telecommunications, medical device and automotive.

Tide Rock’s growing plastics manufacturing and electro-mechanical contract manufacturing portfolio includes Interconnect Solutions Company, Plastics Design and Manufacturing, Pikes Peak, Altratek and PMT, and will be led by Michael Engler, Group CEO.

For more information on this acquisition click here.

VW gives US plant workers 10 percent pay bump amid Omicron pressure

Volkswagen is giving workers at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a 10 percent pay raise as the COVID-19 Omicron variant stretches an already tight labor market. The German automaker reported US sales of 375,030 vehicles for 2021, a 15 percent jump from the prior year. Across the industry, US auto sales will likely be stuck at 15.5 million this year because of tight supplies of semiconductor chips. At the same time, the auto industry is grappling with higher rates of absenteeism because of the spread of the virus.

Click here to read the full article.

New Assembly Plant in Arizona to Make Solar Modules

European solar panel technology company Meyer Burger announced its plans to establish a production site for solar panels in the United States. The company has chosen the final site location for its expected 400-MW capacity facility to be Arizona.

Meyer Burger specializes in heterojunction technology, a combo of crystalline silicon and amorphous silicon thin-film. The Swiss company currently manufactures both cells and modules in Germany. The 400-MW U.S. plant is just a starting point, with the company stating it expects to grow into multiple gigawatts of capacity of solar modules for residential, commercial and utility-scale applications. 

Read the whole article by checking out www.assemblymag.com.

GMTA Names New Vice President of Sales

German Machine Tools of America (GMTA), based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has named Marius Braun as its new vice president of sales, effective January 1, 2022. Braun will supervise the North American sales for the company, which is a distributor of various gear making and related lines of machine tools for automotive and other power transmissions, as well as cleaning equipment and the Steifelmayer line of lasers for motor lamination production.

For more information on Marius Braun and his new position click here.

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