ASM Industries (ASMI) has established a new wind tower production line in Sever do Vouga, Portugal, which will be able to support the company’s new offshore tower production unit in Port of Aveiro, if required.
Namely, the Sever do Vouga production facility is dedicated to onshore wind turbine towers, but it can back up the company’s Aveiro and Setúbal units as ASM sets up its production units to be as flexible as possible, a spokesperson for the company told Offshore WIND .
To remind, ASMI is scheduled to start building its new industrial production unit dedicated to offshore wind in Port of Aveiro in January 2018, after it recently signed a concession agreement with the Port of Aveiro Administration (APA).
The new production line in Sever do Vouga, inaugurated on 4 December by the Secretary of State for Industry, Ana Teresa Lehmann, is expected to increase the production by 40% and create 30 new jobs once fully operational. According to ASMI, the new production line already increased production by 30% from September, when it began working.
ASMI said that the investment of EUR 5 million gives the company the capacity to manufacture steel sections of wind towers up to 80 tons of unit weight, with bigger thicknesses and diameters. The investment covered the construction of a new pavilion and the acquisition of advanced machinery, including a machine that allows rolling up to 118mm thick steel.