lobal industrial companies needing a European presence evaluate sites according to any number of criteria. But they all need at least two things: reliable power and as few bureaucratic hurdles as possible when establishing operations. In the past year, three non- German companies have met these and other key site requirements by locating facilities at the Oberbruch Industry Park in Heinsberg, Germany, in North Rhine- Westphalia, near the border with Belgium and The Netherlands. Just a half- hour drive from Düsseldorf, Oberbruch is situated in the heart of the Cologne- Düsseldorf- Aachen- Maastrict region, one of Europe's most industrialized areas.
   Oberbruch Industry Park is a chemical park located on a 272- acre (110- hectare) site formerly owned by industrial giant Akzo Nobel. It is one of numerous industry parks that came into being as chemical companies transferred some operations outside Germany. Once those operations left, the sites had enough extra energy capacity and space to host new enterprises seeking a location in the heart of Germany's industrial belt.
   Since 2000, the park has been managed by Nuon, a leading European power company based in The Netherlands. Nuon supplies more than 5 million customers with electricity, gas, water and energy- related services. It also is involved in liquefied natural gas projects, coal gasification and such renewable energies as solar and wind power. Oberbruch Industry Park is one of seven sites Nuon manages in The Netherlands and Germany, making it possible for companies to set up operations, take advantage of reliable and affordable power sources – and not have to worry about purchasing sites or contracting with third parties for security, wastewater treatment and other essential services.    "The supply of services enables the customers at the site to concentrate on their core business. Reliability and flexibility are awfully important for each company but crucial for highly sophisticated technology firms," says Ton Doesburg, managing director of Nuon Deutschland, and a senator in the national legislature of The Netherlands. "Therefore we are investing continuously in our infrastructure to improve our performance. We are only successful when our clients are successful."
   The newly built CPH (combined heat and power) plant and the commitment of Nuon helped attract Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd. (CFCL) of Melbourne, Australia, to Oberbruch Industry Park after an evaluation of other sites in Europe and Asia. "They joined the park because of the service package, and they are an energy company with a production process that involved customized machinery," Doesburg explains.
   "Our production facility simply must be successful," says Mike Atkinson, CFCL's manager of capital projects. "The deciding factor in going to Oberbruch was our sense that the location gave us the best chance of success for a whole basket of reasons," he says. "The most impressive reason is the feeling of cohesion the park, the local authorities and the regional governmental authorities bring to the process. They are operating as one team, helping us be successful. That is fairly unique in our experience." /
   Because CFCL uses a fairly complicated manufacturing process using what Atkinson calls "quite esoteric materials," the company has to undergo permitting with respect to environmental considerations. "Support from the local authorities and from Nuon, in making sure that we provided the correct answers on the permit applications and in reviewing the permits so they were successful going forward, was excellent," Atkinson illustrates.
   Phase one of the project, to be completed in late 2008, will involve the installation of a semi- automated production line in an existing, 4,000- sq.- m. (43,000- sq.- ft.) building in the park. The line will produce up to 50,000 1- kW fuel- cell stacks per year in a continuous 24/7 operation; 200 people will be in place at that time. The second phase will add three fully automated production lines designed to produce up to 150,000 units per year in a new, purpose- built factory adjacent to the existing building on a greenfield site. That building will be approximately 40,000 sq. m. (430,560 sq. ft.).
   Atkinson says another reason the location works is the labor supply.
   "That's one of the reasons we've gone to northwestern Germany – the skills available will help us be successful." CFCL's production process is complex, he adds, and because the technology is only now emerging from the developmental stage, "We need a quite- skilled work force as we make sure that everything is done correctly. Fuel cells look deceptively simple, but to make them work is the result of millions of dollars of investment from around the world. You need a good team."    Elsewhere in the park, SAXID GmbH & Co., a leading aftermarket provider for brake pads and brake- related products, is leasing space in a newly refurbished building. Production in the facility will begin in November.
   "We have good connections to the German automobile industry, and we plan to begin our original equipment business in January 2008," says Wilfried Schnell, managing director, who intended for the company to be situated in Germany – members of his future customer base strongly recommended that course of action rather than opening operations in Asia, for example. But although eastern Germany has demonstrable cost benefits, "locations there are not ideal for us, because our most important customers are sitting in Frankfurt and areas closer to [Oberbruch]," says Schnell. "The R&D department must be near the customer, so it was much preferred by our customers to make the location closer to them."
   Once that was determined, it was time to look at area alternatives, and to Schnell, "the most important thing is the incentives." Cologne, Aachen and other metros came up short, Schnell relates, and the Heinsberg area offered incentives to his liking through 2006, so the Oberbruch location was selected.
   The North Rhine- Westphalia state government works closely with industry to make it worth investors' while to locate facilities there. With the reduction or closure of many industrial facilities in recent years, the state wants people working.
   Salaries factored in, as well, inasmuch as they are lower than in nearby cities, and the labor supply was agreeable. "People work very hard for us," says Schnell. "Nuon, too, worked hard to bring us to Oberbruch, promising to make the process quite simple. And that has turned out to be the case. That support has been very important to us."
   The park affords SAXID and other companies opportunities for leveraging resources, Schnell adds. A chemical lab, for example, is available for SAXID to test friction materials and other brake systems before it begins production. Proximity of the lab to production is a strong advantage of the location. Once fully operational, the facility will employ about 30 people in sales, R&D and production, and it will service up to 4 million brake pads per year for the brake systems aftermarket.    Toho Tenax Europe GmbH began production of carbon fibers under the Toho Rayon name at the Oberbruch site in 1986. An R&D center opened in 1988, and a second production line opened in 1998. In 2006, a third production line opened, giving the Oberbruch operation a 3,400- ton capacity. Parent company Toho Tenax Group also has operations in Japan (3,700- ton capacity), where Toho Tenax is headquartered, and the U.S.
   "Further expansions are planned at the Oberbruch site, but they are not yet decided," says Eckhard Scholten, managing director of the German site. "We still have space here for further expansion, and it is the intention of Toho Tenax worldwide to expand the capacity further," he says, adding that the site currently employs 290. "There is a lot of labor here, so we will have no problem finding workers here as we expand."
   Carbon fiber increasingly is used in such industries as aerospace and wind energy. Airbus and Eurocopter – and the German glider industry – are customers of Toho Tenax. Other applications are rollers for paper and printing machines, drive shafts for ships and pressure vessels for natural- gas powered vehicles.    The Oberbruch site ships materials to and receives materials from the facilities in Japan and the U.S. Toho Tenax in Germany outsources its logistics function to Nuon, but Scholten gives high marks to the motorway infrastructure at Oberbruch – the A46 leaves the park heading east, crosses the A44 north- south corridor, and heads to the major commercial center of Düsseldorf. Other logistics attributes of note include these:
   • Rail: German Rail serves the park, and high- speed rail connections provide quick access to Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, London and Paris.
   • Air: Airports within a 60- km. (37- mile) radius include Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Aachen/Maastrict.
   • Ports: Nearby river ports include those at Duisburg and Neuss in Germany and Roermond and Born in The Netherlands. The seaports of Rotterdam and Antwerp are within 200 km. (125 miles) of Oberbruch.

   Energy from the on- site power plant, infrastructure services and administrative services are all part of Toho Tenax's more- than- 20- year experience at the park.
   "I would rather our competitors did not come here to the park, but the infrastructure here is quite good, there is still available space, and space adjacent to the park is slated to be developed for industrial purposes," Scholten points out. "We are not at the end of our plans for further expansion here. Carbon fiber worldwide is in short supply, so companies in this industry will need to keep up with demand."