France’s Inergy Automotive Systems (Paris; www.inergyautomotive.com) and Detalstroykonstruktsiya (Togliatti / Russia) have reached an agreement to establish a joint venture for the manufacture of fuel tanks. Inergy, a subsidiary of Plastic Omnium (PO, Levallois / France; www.plasticomnium.com), will control 51% of the jv. The new joint venture is the latest move on the part of the Paris-based group to continue its growth strategy. Already this year, Inergy expanded its activities in both the US and China – see Plasteurope.com of 14.07.2011.

The French group hopes the new company will allow it to partake in the expected Russian automotive boom. In the field of fuel tanks especially, there is great potential for substitution with plastics – to date, 60% of all Russian fuel tanks are still made of metal. The new jv initially will merge Inergy’s existing production in Stavrovo with that of Detalstroykonstruktsiya in Togliatti. Key customers will include Avtovaz in Togliatti, Ford in St. Petersburg, Avtoframos in Moscow as well as the future production of Nissan and Renault. All in all, the two partners hope the new company will generate sales of EUR 25m in 2011.