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A Swiss supplier of cast metal automotive parts is looking to get in on the electric-mobility trend sweeping Georgia.
GF Casting Solutions AG is investing $184 million into a new facility for high-pressure die-casting in Augusta, where aluminum and magnesium alloys will be used to make structural parts and motor housings.
A division of Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based Georg Fischer AG, GF Castings also works with iron and produces escalator stairs and lighting parts, but the Georgia investment is to be chiefly about serving automotive customers with lightweight components, executives suggested.
“Building a high-pressure die-casting facility is a very long-term investment. The new facility will complete our footprint to become truly global in the e-mobility market,” said Carlos Vasto, president of GF Casting Solutions, in a news release.
Auto makers in recent years have increasingly sought to replace steel and iron with aluminum and other metals to reduce vehicle weight, improving gas mileage in traditional cars while extending the range and efficiency of battery-electrics vehicles.
GF plans to hire 350 people in Richmond County, which just celebrated the groundbreaking of another clean-energy project: Syensqo’s new facility for making PVDF, a binder and separator material for lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The Belgian-origin company spun out of Solvay won a $178 million U.S. Department of Energy grant for the project.
GF is also following another large European investor —copper recycler Aurubis, soon to the be the state’s largest German investor — into the Augusta Corporate Park.
With assistance from the state’s European office in Munich, Gov. Brian Kemp met with the company while traveling in Switzerland to speak at the World Economic Forum in January. Read more: Georgia Tends to Swiss Investment Ties During Governor’s Davos Trip
Landing a prospect like GF fits in with the narrative that Mr. Kemp shared with the world and executives from Chinese battery maker CATL and Volvo Cars during a WEF panel discussion — namely, that Georgia plays a pivotal role of two next-generation industries: automotive and clean energy.
Representatives from Georgia’s overseas offices are making their annual visit this week to learn more about the state and strategize about driving future investment.
Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said in the release that the Europe office continues to source companies with a solid track record in the state’s key industry clusters.
“European companies demonstrate a wealth of business experience, going back centuries in the case of GF, combined with an intentional focus on innovation that is driving the market forward,” Mr. Wilson said.
GF has high-pressure die-casting facilities in Austria, Germany, Romania and China. The company’s revenues exceeded 910 million Swiss francs, or about $1 billion, in 2023.
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