Toyoda Gosei recently began full production at its new facility in the Chomutov region of the Czech Republic. The plant represents an investment of about US$45 million and will eventually employ 700.

Toyoda Gosei of Japan, the world's third-largest manufacturer of airbags and steering wheels, has begun full-time production at its factory in Klasterec nad Oh Ì in the Chomutov region. The company is investing CZK 1.2 billion (US$45 million) and will eventually create 700 jobs at the facility, becoming one of the area's largest employers. The investment is most welcome in a region that has an unemployment rate of more than 18 percent.
        Toyodo Gosei established a joint venture – TG Safety Systems Czech – in the Czech Republic with the trading firm Toyota Tsusho Corp., already established in the country. The operation will manufacture airbag systems for Japanese and other automakers in Western Europe. Toyoda Gosei, with a 9 percent share of the world production of airbags and steering wheels, operates a similar factory near Sheffield in Great Britain. The company's largest customer is Toyota Motor Corp., which buys more than half its production.
        In yet another Toyota-related project in Europe, ProLogis has signed a build-to-suit agreement for a 171,157-sq.-ft. (15,901-sq.-m.) distribution facility in Frankfurt, Germany, with New Wave Logistics, a subsidiary of NYK Logistics, the world's second-largest shipping and carrier company. New Wave will use the facility to serve Toyota.
        The distribution center, scheduled for completion in November, will be part of ProLogis Park Alzenau in the Rhine-Main region of Frankfurt. When fully developed, ProLogis Park Alzenau will have 897,293 sq. ft. (75,000 sq. m.) of space.

Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, vice president of El Salvador and president of PROESA, left, and James J. Rollo, general manager, Latin America, for Avery Dennison Retail Information Services, take a look at labels produced at the company's new facility in San Salvador.

Avery Dennison Retail Information Services opened a $3-million label-manufacturing plant in San Salvador, El Salvador, in late April. The facility will supply Central American apparel manufacturers and their retail and brand owner customers. The plant, which will employ 100 by the end of the year, provides rapid production and delivery of woven labels, printed fabric labels, price tickets, size stickers, bar-coded tags and labels.
        "Previously, the region's sewing operations were supported by our label-manufacturing facilities in the U.S.," says James J. Rollo, Avery Dennison's general manager, Latin America. "The new facility will enable us to respond more rapidly to customer needs and to reduce expenses associated with shipping tags and labels from the U.S. This in turn will allow Central American sewing operations to more easily meet the delivery requirements of their retail and brand owner customers in the U.S. and elsewhere."

PeopleSoft plans to establish a global implementation, development and support facility in Bangalore, India. The company is partnering with Hexaware, a leading systems integrator in India, to establish the center. PeopleSoft has been in India since 1999 and has offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Dehli.

An architectural rendering gives a glimpse of what Biogen's new plant in Hillerod, Denmark, will look like following its projected opening in late 2005. The $250-million facility will employ about 200.

Construction is under way in Hillerod, Denmark, on Biogen's US$250-million, 340,000-sq.-ft. (31,600-sq.-m.) facility, which will be used to manufacture a variety of the biotechnology company's products. The plant, which will be completed in late 2005, will employ about 200. It will be one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world with 23,780 gallons (90,000 liters) of bioreactor capacity.
        Biogen's chairman and CEO, James C. Mullen, cites Denmark's "pro-business environment, highly skilled work force and the rich research environment in Medicon Valley" as reasons for Biogen to site its first major manufacturing facility outside the U.S.
        "This new facility will enhance our leadership in biologics manufacturing and gives us greater capacity for producing multiple therapeutics that help improve the quality of people's lives around the world," he says. "This important project represents an exciting new chapter in Biogen's history and expands our presence in Europe where we were founded 25 years ago."
        Biogen, now headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., was founded in Geneva in 1978 and employs more than 2,700 worldwide. Fluor Corporation will handle program and construction management services for the large-scale manufacturing facility, which will include a laboratory, administrative offices, warehouse and utility facilities.

"Business Space Across the World 2003," an annual report produced by Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker, the European division of New York-based Cushman & Wakefield, looks at the world's most expensive locations for office and industrial space. The report notes that a logistics squeeze has doubled prime industrial rents in Moscow, while London's have actually fallen 3.5 percent. Rents have expectedly risen by some 20 percent on average across Central and Eastern Europe. The report notes that development in those regions has been limited to design-build, preventing oversupply.
        "The logistics sector will continue to drive demand, with manufacturing remaining weak," says David Hutchings, Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker's Head of European Research. "Occupiers will be looking to cut costs further by taking advantage of lower production costs in locations such as China and Eastern Europe."

Densitron recently commissioned its new joint-venture LCD plant in Kun Shan, near Shanghai, China. The new plant will employ up to 1,000 under local and Taiwanese management. The 341,000-sq.-ft. (31,706-sq.-m.) plant will produce color STN panels and modules aimed at the mobile handheld market, instrumentation, medical and industrial applications. The Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-headquartered company says planned capacity of the Kun Shan plant will grow to more than 200,000 modules per month and 80,000 sets of STN motherglass panels per month.