300 jobs for Telford as factory to open this week
A new aluminium casting facility, creating about 300 jobs, is to be officially opened in Telford this week.
The 225,000 square foot plant has been built on Telford 54 Business Park at Nedge Hill and will make parts for Jaguar Land Rover.
Built in the name of Magna International's subsidiary Cosma, it is one of the biggest in the county, and has provided a massive jobs boost for the town.
It is the largest automotive development in the West Midlands after the Jaguar Land Rover complex at the i54 site.
Magna's subsidiary Cosma International took over metals pressings specialist Stadco in 2015, promising investment in the business, and the new development shows that promise coming to fruition.
Work on the new castings facility development began in the autumn of 2016 and will be ready soon to begin production.
The grand opening will take place on Thursday.
Ben Goater, general manager of CCUK, said: "Cosma’s patented vacuum casting process, High-Q-Cast, was added to the company’s portfolio in 2012. Since then, Cosma has continually grown its casting engineering and manufacturing presence globally.
"This will be the first die casting facility for Magna in the UK. The High-Q-Cast process will be used to make body and chassis products at CCUK, which adds to Cosma’s proven track record of advancing the industry with innovative lightweight structures."
Once production begins in 2018, the facility will use Magna's high-pressure vacuum die casting process to produce a number of advanced lightweight aluminum castings – which are seen as a key building block in the next generation all-aluminum and multi-material vehicle architectures.
The parts made at the site are thought to be for body structures of JLR's cars, although exactly which models which will benefit from the site's expertise has not been disclosed. Nor has the total value of the project, although it will run into millions of pounds.
Telford 54 is described as Telford and Wrekin's "flagship automotive and advanced manufacturing employment site", and is already home to the likes of Filtermist and measurements company Torus.
