Founded just last year, Ilium (Manama / Bahrain; www.ilium.pro) is building a new plant to manufacture long glass fibre chopped mats without binders and glass-fibre reinforced core materials for Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) in the Bahrain International Investment Park. The plant is to begin production in July this year, a company spokesperson told Plasteurope.com during this year’s JEC Composites fair (www.jeccomposites.com), held in Paris / France (see Plasteurope.com of 11.03.2011).

Ilium was founded by composite producer Bahrain Fibreglass International (BFG, Manama / Bahrain; www.bfginternational.com) and French industry experts Gilbert Chomarat and Frederic Romier. Chomarat served as the erstwhile chairman of composite specialist Chomarat Group (Le Cheylard / France; www.chomarat.com), and will introduce a completely new production technique.

Ilium is to invest about EUR 10m into the new 6,000 m² facility. The plant will have capacity to produce 15,000 t/y, with most of the output earmarked for Europe, North America, the Middle East and Brazil. The glass fibres will mostly likely be supplied by Abahsain Fibreglass (AFG, Muharraq / Bahrain; www.afg.bh), which also has a facility in the industrial park – see Plasteurope.com of 25.08.2010.