News

14 April 2010

 

Atlumin and MCP Wellingborough combine operations

MCP Group SA of Tilly, Belgium, which supplies minor metals products and chemicals including bismuth, is merging its Wellingborough UK operation (Mining Chemicals & Products Ltd) into its subsidiary Atlumin Energy Inc of New Hartford, NY, USA.

Founded in 1929, Mining Chemicals & Products Ltd supplies advanced materials (primarily made from indium, gallium, selenium and tellurium) to sectors including the automotive, compound semiconductor, photovoltaic, battery, and flat-panel display industries. MCP Wellingborough also provides reclaim and recycling service.

With plants in Germany, the UK, and the USA, Atlumin Energy manufactures materials for the renewable energy market (including solar module makers) — such as cadmium, copper, gallium, indium, molybdenum, selenium, and tellurium — with products ranging from key elements, alloys, and specialty chemicals, to engineered fabrications, such as sputtering targets. Atlumin also offers recycling and reclaim programs.

Led by Atlumin’s president Gregory Phipps, the combined entity will operate under the name Atlumin Energy, while the MCP brand name will be retained for existing products. Atlumin and MCP Wellingborough have complementary core competencies that will enable the combined organization to provide a more complete and streamlined solution, the firm reckons. Atlumin/MCP products and services extend from sourcing and refining through fabricating and reclaiming of specialty metals-based products (the ‘Atlumin Materials Loop’).

“Adding Atlumin leadership and supporting additional investment in Wellingborough accelerates and broadens the MCP Wellingborough value proposition,” says MCP Group’s CEO Laurent Raskin. “By leveraging the diversified operations and employee skill sets of both organizations, this combined company is well positioned in a marketplace full of opportunities,” he adds.

The primary goals of Atlumin’s integration of the MCP Wellingborough operations are the expansion of development capabilities and manufacturing capacity. The integration should enable faster customization to deliver against specific needs of customers in rapidly changing markets, reckons the firm. Certain products and services will be manufactured at facilities in both Atlumin/MCP Wellingborough UK and Sunnyvale, CA, USA. Atlumin’s establishment of multiple facilities with copy-exact manufacturing and quality management is part of a long-term strategy to reduce supply risks for customers and to streamline logistics.

“Through this integration, we’re creating a world-class leader in specialty materials and metals,” reckons Phipps. “By combining MCP Wellingborough’s lean, high-volume manufacturing platform with Atlumin’s innovative development and attentive account teams, the net result will be best-in-class manufacturing on a global basis,” he claims. “The complementary synergies will substantially increase our business scale and expand our customer base... This is another step in our strategy to compress the material supply chain and offer increased system-level efficiency to our customers.”

The combined organization will benefit from complementary technologies, a strong management team, and a shared focus on reliability and quality, says the firm. Synergies through the integration are also expected to make operations leaner and faster.

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Visit: www.mcp-group.com

Visit: www.atlumin.com