BD Brings Second China Plant Online
North American Presence Grows in Amsterdam
Aerospace Facility Will Double Production
German Firm Inaugurates India Facility
Lenovo Broadens Its Global Footprint
Wacker Opens Facility in China

he Mersey Ferry gained worldwide fame with the hit 1960s song "Ferry Across The Mersey" by Gerry & The Pacemakers. In a few years, a new landmark bridge will be crossing the Mersey in Halton, near Liverpool in the U.K. The planned 1.4-mile (2.3-km.) Mersey Gateway Bridge, currently in the permitting phase, is due to open in 2014, with construction set to begin in 2011.
      The £390-million (US$767 million) project would cross between the towns of Runcorn and Widnes. The project is aimed at bringing much-needed traffic relief to the current Silver Jubilee Bridge, which will become tolled when the Gateway Bridge opens.
      The bridge project will be funded through a mix of public and private sources.
  ecton, Dickinson and Company opened its second facility in Suzhou, China, in April. The new BD Diagnostics facility produces rapid diagnostic products for flu and viral infections, responding to the need for clinical testing and rapid diagnosis.
      The facility will employ 700 at full capacity and is located in the Suzhou Export Processing Zone District B in the Suzhou Industrial Park.
      BD built its first facility in Suzhou Industrial Park in 1995 to support the BD Medical business.
  he number of North American companies choosing Amsterdam for their European operations is on the rise, reports the Economic Development Dept. of the City of Amsterdam. Thirty-four North American firms opened offices in Amsterdam in 2007, up from 26 in 2006. The companies represent several sectors, including financial and business services (26 percent), and creative industries, new media and ICT (18 percent each).
      Amsterdam also remained a popular destination for companies from Asia and the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) regions. The number of new Chinese companies doubled over the previous year, and India is emerging as a strong foreign investor. The new developments created approximately 2,200 jobs.
  ondon's West End is once again the world's most expensive office market, according to CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (CBRE) Research's semi-annual Global Market Rents survey. The report tracks world markets with the highest as well as fastest-growing occupancy costs for the 12 months ended March 31. Moscow, Tokyo's Inner Central Five Wards, Mumbai's Nariman Point and Tokyo's Outer Central Five Wards rounded out the top five most expensive markets.
      "Office occupancy costs are continuing to defy sluggish economic conditions and the credit crunch, as they rise faster than global inflation," said Dr. Raymond Torto, CBRE's global chief economist. "These cost increases are dominated by emerging markets, caused by both supply and demand imbalance and the depreciation of the dollar relative to local currencies. In some of these emerging markets, Class A office space is seriously lacking."
      Ho Chi Minh City had the fastest-growing occupancy costs during this period, up 94 percent. Moscow was not far behind at 93 percent, followed by Singapore at 86 percent. Overall, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) dominated the list of markets with the fastest growing occupancy costs, accounting for five of the top 10 and 19 of the top 50 markets. Worldwide, 88 percent of the 173 office markets monitored posted higher occupancy costs.
  he 3M Aerospace and Aircraft Maintenance Department plans to build an aerospace-focused factory in Wroclaw, Poland. 3M says the Poland facility will significantly increase its manufacturing capacity for structural bonding adhesives and surface protection products. The factory is expected to be operational by late 2009.
      "The expansion into Poland is our response to the ongoing needs of our global aerospace customers, many of whom are located in Europe and Asia," said Brian Young, general manager of 3M Aerospace and Aircraft Maintenance Department. "This new factory will effectively double our capacity to support our customers where they do business and supply better service around the world."
      The new factory will be built at an existing 3M site.
  he ElringKlinger Group, a Germany-based manufacturer of automotive parts, opened its first facility in India in April, near Pune. The plant has the capacity to produce several million gaskets a year for powertrain applications such as engines and transmissions. Customers include Ford, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Fiat, Tata and MAN. The company now has 21 facilities worldwide.
  enovo is building a new manufacturing plant and EMEA fulfillment operations center in the Legnica Special Economic Zone in the Lower Silesia region of Poland. The facility, due to open by the end of 2008, will provide assembly and configuration, distribution services and logistics along with value-added services such as custom imaging.
      The 323,100-sq.-ft. (30,000-sq.-m.), $20-million facility will employ 1,000 when fully operational, and have an initial production capacity of more than two million desktop PCs per year.
      The facility is the last of five the company announced during 2007. The others are in Shanghai; Baddi, India; Monterrey, Mexico; and Greensboro, N.C.
  acker Dymatic, a joint venture of Germany-based Wacker Chemie and Shunde, China-based Dymatic Chemicals, opened a new silicone emulsion plant in China. The facility, located in the Jiangsu Yangtze River Chemical Industrial Park, Zhangjiagang city (Jiangsu Province), produces silicone emulsions and process auxiliaries for the Chinese textile, leather and fiber industries and has a capacity of approximately 30,000 metric tons per year.
      "The opening of the new emulsion plant is an important milestone for the joint venture," said Dr. Christoph von Ploth, president of Wacker Silicones. "The new facility in Zhangjiagang will allow us to even better serve the local markets with customized solutions. It will also strengthen our position as a leading supplier of silicone emulsions in the regional market."