Autocatalyst volumes
are growing at a rate significantly ahead of vehicle
sales. This is driven by continuously tightening
emission standards worldwide, led by Europe and the
United States. These tightening standards are resulting
in the use of more catalysts per vehicle and growth
in demand for more technologically sophisticated
catalyst systems.
The new Royston facility
will be in production towards the end of this year
and will have initial capacity to manufacture 3.5
million autocatalysts per year. It will supply the
European market together with Johnson Matthey's existing
facilities in Brussels and South Africa. Demand in
Europe now exceeds 30 million catalysts per year.
Existing autocatalyst production on the Royston site
will be consolidated into the new facility.
In addition to autocatalysts,
the new plant will produce sophisticated catalysts
for heavy duty diesel trucks and buses, an important
new market for Johnson Matthey that will commence
in earnest as new European legislation comes into
effect from 2005.
Announcing this new
investment Neil Carson, Executive Director, said:
"JM is a world leader
in emission control technology, first developed on
the Royston site over 25 years ago. We are pleased
that our latest and most advanced facility should
be here to better service our European car company
customers."
Pelham Hawker, Managing
Director, European Region, said:
"Johnson Matthey's
European customers are currently supplied from our
Belgian and South African factories. New advanced
technology products have increased our share of a
business that is already growing strongly because
of tighter environmental legislation and good car
sales. We therefore need to build additional capacity.
We have chosen to do this at Royston because our
European technical service centre is on the site
and we have a pool of talented and experienced staff
to run the new facility and train the 30 or more
new employees we will be recruiting."
