Porsche Expands its Weissach, Germany, R&D Center

Porsche AG, the Germany based sports car manufacturer, officially opened three new buildings July 18th at its Weissach development center, marking the conclusion of the largest investment project in the center's history. Over $200 million were invested in a new design studio with concept car construction facility, a state-of-the-art aero-acoustic wind tunnel and the Electronics Integration Center that set new standards in forward-looking vehicle development 'engineered and designed in Weissach'.

"Weissach now stands more than ever for top German engineering expertise and pure Swabian inventive spirit," said Matthias Muller, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, during the ceremony. "Intelligent engineering leads to success not only in motor vehicle manufacturing, but in architecture as well. That's shown by these new buildings: our creative developers are able here to work hand-in-hand even more methodically than before," said Muller.

The research and development center already stood out in the sector in the past, with the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer being the only player in the industry pooling all R&D together in one place: from concept to production car development (from the first design sketches via drive system, bodywork, chassis, electrics and electronics), including test runs on the center's own road and off-road circuit.

Maximum transparency

The new studio provides the design staff with optimum conditions for the whole process of creating the exterior and interior of Porsche vehicles. From the first vision all the way through to the finished form - the complete sports cars are created under one roof. The architectural layout of the new studio facilitates a maximum level of transparency and communication and strengthens interaction between the 'Preparation' and 'Flow Analysis' disciplines, whose staff works together with the designers in the same building complex.

Adjacent to the studio is the 'New Wind Tunnel'. The proximity aids daily collaboration and reduces the time cycles between design and aero-acoustic development. In this process the experts make multiple use of the wind tunnel, from the early stage of developing concept car designs right through to testing vehicles ready for full production. The building and equipment for the wind tunnel represent the single largest element of the sports car manufacturer's $200 million plus investment at this site.

Prologis Acquires 1 Million Square Feet in Europe

Prologis, Inc., announced July 17th that Prologis European Properties Fund II ("PEPF II") has acquired two logistics facilities in Poland and Hungary. The properties total more than 1 million square feet (94,200 square metres) and are 100 percent leased. They include:

• A 610,000-sq.-ft. (56,700-sq.-m.) building in Gliwice, Poland. The facility is occupied by Tesco, a multinational grocery retailer and repeat customer. The property has immediate access to two trans-European road networks, enabling efficient transportation of goods; and
• A 404,000-sq.-ft. (37,500-sq.-m.) building in Budapest, Hungary, occupied by Auchan, a global retailer and repeat customer. The facility is located near the city's international airport, approximately 20 miles from Budapest city center.

"These properties are excellent additions to our portfolios in Poland and Hungary," said Ben Bannatyne, managing director, Prologis Central & Eastern Europe. "Both are in key locations along major commercial routes that are growing in importance due to an increase in intra-regional trade in Central and Eastern Europe."

Prologis owns and manages approximately 152 million square feet (14.1 million square meters) of logistics and distribution space in Europe as of March 31, 2014.

Trilliant Announces Smart-Grid Projects in Southeast Asia

Trilliant, a leading US-based smart grid platform company, today announced further expansions of its smart grid projects with leading Southeast Asian utilities Tenaga Nasional Berhad ("TNB") in Malaysia; Manila Electric Company ("Meralco") in the Philippines; and Provincial Electricity Authority ("PEA") in Thailand.

Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand are all members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an organization of 10 Southeast Asian countries that represent a population of approximately 600 million people and a growing GDP of approximately US$2.3 trillion.

As part of the ASEAN 2020 Vision, the member nations vow to establish interconnecting arrangements in the field of energy, electricity, natural gas and water within ASEAN, promote cooperation in energy efficiency and conservation, as well as develop more new and renewable energy resources. Smart grid can be the one enabler that will help these countries modernize their energy infrastructures in the 21st century to meet these goals. It is within this strategic context that Trilliant continues to successfully partner with the leading utilities and other important stakeholders in ASEAN to help Southeast Asian countries achieve affordable, secure and clean energy supplies to meet and sustain their economic growths.

In Malaysia, TNB, the nation's largest utility serving over 8 million customers, is seeking to deliver consumer benefits such as better insight and control of energy consumption, improved reliability and enhanced energy efficiency, while meeting a demand growth of 4-5 percent and meeting the country's commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020. TNB recently chose Trilliant as one of the technology partners in Malaysia's first Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) smart grid pilot in Melaka state where TNB will demonstrate the aforementioned benefits to the consumers of Malaysia.

In the Philippines, Trilliant as one of the technology partners, helps MERALCO to deploy AMI prepay solution. AMI is part of MERALCO's long-term Smart Grid vision of integrating "smart intelligence and advanced solutions" into the electric network to provide consumers with real-time information, energy management capabilities and improved quality and reliability of power supply.

PEA, the largest utility in Thailand, providing electricity to over 16 million customers is working towards a long term roadmap to modernize the electrical infrastructure to provide more reliable and efficient energy to their consumers across 99.4 percent of the country. Trilliant was recently chosen by PEA to provide the broadband mesh communications for automation of the utility's smart substation pilot project.

General Mills Opens Innovation Center in China

General Mills inaugurated the company's first innovation, technology and quality center in China on July 15th, signaling a commitment to drive greater innovation and investment in one of the company's largest growth markets.

The US$15-million facility, spanning 75,000 sq. ft. (6,970 sq. m.), is the first major technical center outside of the General Mills worldwide headquarters in Minneapolis. The state-of-the-art complex will focus on developing high-quality products for Chinese consumers including snacks, convenient meals, yogurt and super-premium ice cream. Inside it will house centers for product research and development, food safety, food nutrition research, and food sensory evaluation.

"Our new technical center in Shanghai provides General Mills a tremendous opportunity to accelerate innovation in the Greater China region and better support this rapidly expanding business," said Ken Powell, Chairman and CEO. "By bringing our world-class capabilities to the region, we will increase our agility to act on emerging consumer trends, enable bigger and better innovation pipelines, and establish a food safety center of excellence for our business."

General Mills also operates technical centers in Minneapolis, France, India and Brazil. In addition, the company's Cereal Partners Worldwide joint venture with Nestle has a research center in Switzerland.

China is one of the company's largest growth markets with brands such as Wanchai Ferry dim sum, Haagen-Dazs ice cream and Bugles and Trix snacks. Constant-current net sales for China have grown at a 15 percent compound rate over the past four years, reaching over $700 million in 2014. General Mills expects double-digit net sales growth from Greater China this fiscal year. Fully one-third of General Mills sales are now outside the US, where it is focused on the middle class consumer in emerging markets to drive faster topline growth. The emerging global middle class is expected to reach 50 percent of the world's population by 2030. Across China, Indonesia, India and Brazil, the sheer number of new middle class households is projected to grow by almost 200 million people between 2010 and 2020.

"These consumers are increasingly pressed for time," said Chris O'Leary, executive vice president and chief operating officer, International. "As a result, this emerging middle class is looking for convenient food solutions, with strong health credentials and great taste. All of which points to a huge growth opportunity for our business going forward."

West Dedicates Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in India

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has dedicated its manufacturing plant in the Sri City Special Economic Zone (SEZ), where the company will expand its growing primary packaging for injectable medicines business.

"West is experiencing a very exciting period of growth and business expansion in Asia, and we are proud to open our first facility in India," said Donald E. Morel, Jr., West's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "With more and more pharmaceutical customers establishing operations in India, our new plant will help West meet market demand and further establishes the company's presence in this growing and dynamic market. This new facility in Sri City will allow West to continue to satisfy the needs of our customers, who are serving a growing number of patients in India and the Asia Pacific region."

In June 2012, West signed a 99-year lease on 72,800 sq. m. (783,600 sq. ft.) of land in Sri City. Sri City offers the advantages of a metropolitan location and was selected primarily on the suitability of land, availability of utilities, labor suitability, logistics and quality of life. Construction began in August 2012 on a 15,300-sq.-m. (164,700-sq.-ft.) facility that will produce seals used in primary packaging of injectable medicines manufactured by West's pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical customers in India and the wider Asia Pacific region. There are future plans to expand production at the site to include West's elastomer component business.

West's presence in the Asia Pacific market includes a plant in Singapore, two plants in Qingpu, China and sales offices in Australia, China, India and Singapore. West also owns 25 percent of Daikyo Seiko, Ltd, Tokyo, Japan. Daikyo Seiko, founded in 1954, is a leader in the fields of pharmaceutical packaging and medical device components. The West/Daikyo relationship was formed in 1973 and includes joint marketing agreements and technology transfer and licensing agreements.

TRW Opens Its Largest Ever Technical Center in China

TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. announced on June 6th the opening of its largest ever Technical Center – a 66,000-sq.-m. (710,400-sq.-ft.) facility in Anting, China. The facility, designed and built to house more than 20 scientific testing labs supporting all of TRW's main business areas including braking, steering and suspension, occupant safety and safety electronics, will employ more than 1,200 members of engineering, research and technical staff.

John C. Plant, TRW Automotive chairman and chief executive officer, explained: "We are delighted to announce the opening of our largest tech center worldwide, located in Anting. This is a move which demonstrates our continued investment and commitment to supporting automotive manufacturers in bringing advanced vehicle safety systems to the Chinese market and the broader Asia Pacific region. With the number of cars on the road in China expected to double by 2020, the issues of improved vehicle safety and education, for both drivers and other road users, have to be a priority for the industry.

"TRW will continue to invest in these areas – with the new Anting Technical Center being our latest milestone for bringing automotive safety systems to the Chinese market,” he continued. “From electronically controlled braking and steering systems, to semi-automated driving, the Anting Technical Center positions us well to serve our Chinese customers' vehicle safety needs today and well into the future.”

The new Anting Technical Center will also house research & development, engineering design & application, and testing & validation activities across all of TRW's product lines, as well as providing customers with direct access to technical and commercial services.