Europe´s largest polyurethanes processor, Recticel (B-1200 Brussels; www.recticel.com), has started up a plant at Schönebeck in eastern Germany to make interior trim for the new VW “Passat”. Output of the new EUR 35m plant that uses the group´s “Colofast Spray” technology for spray casting PU skins for dashboards and door panels is delivered to VW via tier 1 suppliers Peguform (D-79261 Bötzingen; www.peguform.de) and Faurecia (F-92735 Nanterre; www.faurecia.com). The facility started with 60 workers in January and will employ 150 at full production.

Recticel, which produces mainly PU foams, issued a profit warning for 2004 in early February 2005, citing delays in contracts to supply Mercedes-Benz and GM in the US but also a EUR 18m increase in the cost of its raw materials – mostly MDI, TDI and polyols – in the year´s second half. The main issue is a delay of over six months to the launch of a Mercedes “M Class” model, a spokesman for the group told PIE. In the US, Recticel makes Spray parts for Mercedes at a plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and for GM at its Clarkston, Michigan facility.

Recticel forecasts Spray sales to exceed EUR 260m in 2006, up from around EUR 133m in 2003, which was then 11% of group sales. Last year, the group started Spray units at Mallersdorf / Germany (for the BMW 5 series and the X3), at Unterriexingen / Germany (for the Mercedes “A-class”) and at Teplice / Czech Republic (for the Skoda “Octavia” and Opel “Astra”).