Automotive supplier Visteon has invested 30 million euros (US$33 million) in its new factory next to the PSA Peugeot-Citroen assembly plant in Noyal/Chatillon-sur-Seiche near Rennes, France. The 177,600-sq.-ft. (16,500-sq.-m.) facility will support current and future business with PSA. The plant will employ 400 at full production, manufacturing and assembling HVAC systems, door trim modules and interior trim components. The facility will have the capacity to produce 8,000 door panels per day.

Visteon is building a new facility (above left) in France to serve PSA Peugeot Citroen. PSA Peugeot Citroen is also ramping up its Buenos Aires plant to produce the Peugeot 307 car (inset).

        Meanwhile, in another hemisphere, PSA Peugeot Citroen will begin producing the mid-range Peugeot 307 at its Buenos Aires plant in 2004. The French firm will invest 50 million euros (US$55.1 million) and plans to build 16,000 of the cars annually with 60 percent exported to other Latin American countries.
        In 2002, the Buenos Aires plant, which employs 1,560, produced 17,800 vehicles. The group sold 16,900 vehicles in Argentina and a total of 109,000 vehicles in all of Latin America.
        The French automaker also recently announced it would begin manufacturing its new family of small gasoline engines, developed with BMW, at a new production unit in Douvrin, France, at the end of 2005. The new unit, which will be attached to an existing plant that produces engines for both PSA and Renault, will require an investment of about 430 million euros ($473.5 million) and employ 820.

Industrial real estate developer AMB Property Corp. has begun work on three Class A air cargo facilities at Singapore's Changi International and Charles de Gaulle-Roissy airport in Paris. And that is just the beginning.
        AMB chief investment officer Guy Jaquier says the company will invest up to US$1.1 billion over the next three to five years to buy and develop specialized air cargo centers near the busiest Asian and European cargo airports. Those include Hong Kong International, Tokyo-Narita, London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schipol, Frankfurt International and Madrid-Barajas airports. Funding will come in part from the sale of industrial properties in non-strategic U.S. markets.
        In Singapore, AMB says completion of its 234,000-sq.-ft. (21,739-sq.-m.) facility at the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore is scheduled for fourth quarter 2003. In Paris, AMB is developing two logistics facilities totaling 168,415 sq. ft. (15,646 sq. m.).
        AMB's industrial development and renovation pipeline through 2004 stands at $106.8 million and consists of an estimated 1.7 million sq. ft. (157,930 sq. m.), with 28 percent of it preleased.

BASF world headquarters in Ludwigshafen — with its 250 production plants, assorted labs, technical centers and offices — is the largest integrated chemical complex in Europe.

BASF is building a new 240-million-euro (US$264.4-million) combined heat and power (CHP) plant at its manufacturing center in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Siemens Power Generation will deliver the turnkey power plant, which will include two gas turbines, one steam turbine, three generators and two heat-recovery steam generators.
        The new power plant will be fueled by natural gas and will operate on the basis of combined heat and power. The combined generation of electricity and steam means the plant will be able to achieve an energy efficiency of nearly 90 percent. Construction is expected to begin this fall.

Zurich has scored a hat trick, returning to its now familiar perch atop Mercer Human Resource Consulting's annual quality-of-life rankings for the third consecutive year. The analysis, conducted last November and released in March, is based on an evaluation of 39 quality-of-life criteria for each city, including political, social, economic, and environmental factors; personal safety and health; education; transport; and other public services.
        Rounding out the top five on the list are Vancouver, Geneva and Sydney in a three-way tie for second, followed by Sydney, Auckland, Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Bern in a four-way tie for fifth.

Scenic Zurich continues to score high on the quality-of-life measuring stick.

        "Zurich's unequalled quality of living turns working and living into a great pleasure for international companies' managers," Willi Meier, CEO of Greater Zurich Area, tells Site Selection. "We are proud of having been rated number one worldwide for our quality of living by Mercer for the third year in a row. International companies are strongly compelled to offer their qualified expatriates an attractive environment. Studies like Mercer's help us to attract companies to the region by enhancing our image worldwide."
        One of the latest firms to move its international headquarters to Zurich is Corum Group, a Bellevue, Wash., provider of merger and acquisition services to software and information technology companies worldwide. Corum's Zurich office will serve all countries outside the U.S.
        "Leading criteria in our search for a headquarters were neutrality and internationality," says Bruce Milne, Corum's founder, president and CEO. "Only Switzerland met these requirements."
        Milne says an added Swiss benefit is a multilingual work force, enabling Corum to conduct business in German, French, Italian and English. But Zurich doesn't win them all. Google, the Internet search engine firm, announced in mid-March it would place its European headquarters in Dublin, which finished 23rd on the Mercer list. Dublin beat out Zurich in the Google search, after a six-month contest between the
        two cities.

Austria will be the top economic beneficiary among the 15 member states of the European Union when the organization accepts 10 new members, according to a study by Austria Business Agency, the national investment company.
        A study published in late 2002 by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies indicates EU expansion may account for an additional 0.7 percent in Austria's gross domestic product over a period of 10 years, the highest in the EU.
        "Austria will profit the most, because of its over-proportional presence in the CEE (Central and Eastern European) region when it comes to business and investment links," says Peter Havlik, author of the study.
        A separate analysis carried out by Bank Austria Creditanstalt, a subsidiary of Germany's Hypovereins-bank and the financial institution with the most extensive banking network in the CEE region, concludes that Austria will benefit by 24 billion euros (US$26.4 billion) during the same period.

General Motors plans to invest US$60 million over three years in an Indian technology center, which would aid round-the-clock global engineering and research to make futuristic vehicles. The Technical Center in Bangalore will begin operations this summer and will eventually employ 260. The center will build on GM's recent association with India's leading academic institution, the Indian Institute of Science, for joint research in automotive structural materials and manufacturing processes.

        Toyota says it will spend $180 million in Indonesia by 2005 as it takes control of its joint venture manufacturing unit, Toyota Astra Motor, from its partner, PT Astra International. After the restructuring, Toyota will control 95 percent of the manufacturing unit and 49 percent of the distribution arm.