Kaman Aerostructures, a division of Kaman Aerospace Corporation, formally inaugurated its new state of the art manufacturing facility in the city of Chihuahua on November 10, 2010.
On hand for the ceremony were Alberto Chretin Castillo, Secretary of the Economy representing César Horacio Duarte Jáquez, Governor of the State of Chihuahua; Marco Adán Quezada Martinez, Mayor of Chihuahua; Neal J. Keating, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Kaman Corporation; Gregory L. Steiner, President of Kaman Aerospace Group; Robert Kanaskie, President Kaman Aerostructures; and Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of American Industries, Luis Lara Armendariz.
Kaman Aerostructures’ new facility will initially manufacture extrusions and sheet metal details to support the aerospace industry worldwide. Once components are completed in Mexico, the parts will be shipped either to Kaman Aerostructures’ manufacturing operations in the U.S. for final assembly into structures or directly to end customers. Kaman Aerostructures plans to grow the Chihuahua facility over time and it could employ as many as 500 people with a potential investment of $10M. Kaman Aerostructures received business and site selection support from American Industries on this project.
“We are very pleased to open our facility in Chihuahua and are honored to celebrate this occasion in the company of Secretary of the Economy Alberto Chretin and Mayor Marco Adán Quezada,” said Neal Keating. “This new plant is part of Kaman’s ongoing strategy to grow its global footprint and heighten sourcing, manufacturing, engineering and business development capabilities around the world in support of customers.”
“A number of factors were considered in the selection process for the location of this new Kaman facility. Chihuahua scored highly in all criteria and subsequent to the location selection decision, has met all our expectations during the initial start-up phase of the operations,” said Robert Kanaskie.
“We welcome Kaman Aerospace Corporation to the large and growing Chihuahua Aerospace Cluster and look forward to a prosperous future together.” said Secretary of the Economy in representation of the Chihuahua State Governor, César Duarte Jáquez. “Chihuahua today is a base of operations for many aerospace companies due to its modern infrastructure, aerospace technical training and research centers, educated labor force, and government support for new aerospace business initiatives.”