For an investment of some EUR 36m, automotive supplier Inapal Plasticos (Leca do Balio / Portugal; www.inapalplasticos.pt) has built a new plant at VW´s Portuguese site of Palmela. Press manufacturer Dieffenbacher (Eppingen / Germany; www.dieffenbacher.de) supplied the SMC specialist with three production units that went on stream a short while ago. At the heart of the facility are two fully automatic "Compress DS-U 2100/1800 AS" high-speed presses for the production of trunk lids for the new "EOS" VW convertible. The third press is used to make under-body shields for the EOS and Seat models. Inapal supplies the trunk module fully assembled, painted and equipped with tail lamps, licence plate illumination, emblem, antenna system and inner lining, "just in sequence" to the VW assembly line. Around 100 new jobs have been created by the investment.

Inapal Plasticos is part of the automotive supplier group of the same name with sister companies, Inapal Metal (www.inapalmetal.pt) and a producer of exhaust systems. The plastics converter employs 280 people and has sales in excess of EUR 20m. Its output includes battery holders, front modules, engine hoods and body parts. In a 50:50 jv with Peguform Iberica (Polinya / Spain), Inapal Plasticos also is responsible for Sociedade Portuguesa de Pintura e Modulos para a Industria Automovel (SPPM), a company that has invested some EUR 40m in a paint line in Palmela.