US-based lead-acid separator company Daramic is expanding its facility in France, president Bryan Moorehead has revealed.
The move will “add at least 15% to our capabilities” in the country, Moorehead told BEST Battery Briefing on the sidelines of the 16th European Lead Battery Conference (ELBC) in Vienna.
“We expect the enhanced flooded battery (EFB) market to grow for the lead-acid battery industry so we’re excited to be expanding our capacity to meet customers’ needs,” Moorehead said.
“The lead-acid battery industry is the only market that is end-to-end recyclable and I think if you talk about green energy storage, lead-acid is the leader around the world in terms of technology and chemistry, so we feel confident in adding capacity to our global network,” Moorehead added. “The industry’s growth is sustainable for years to come.”
Moorehead said Daramic had carried out “incremental projects” in Europe, but the latest project “will probably be the most significant in six or seven years”. “Europe is really leading the EFB revolution and it is time now with our growth to concentrate on Europe as well as Asia.”
“This is more of an extension of our business strategy to support our partners in innovation of the EFB,” Moorehead said. He said the project would involve some physical expansion of the French facility where Daramic has “a lot of land”.
Daramic also has a European plant in Germany, but said France was chosen for the expansion this time because most of the company’s European market is serviced from France for EFB applications.
The announcement comes just over a year after Daramic unveiled plans to open its first end-to-end polyethylene manufacturing facility in Gujurat, India and to expand its capacity in Prachinburi, Thailand and Tianjin, China.
