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Monday, 08 October 2007 |
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Page 3 of 3
A change in the paradigm
While Vought and Global Aeronautica didn’t invent composite manufacturing in the state, their high profile is well deserved composite industry experts said.
“South Carolina has vast experience in producing everything from composite fibers to golf clubs to boats to industrial materials, but the 787 project, that really changes the paradigm,” said Ed Maier, composites specialist with the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a Columbia-based not-for-profit that helps small- and mid-size manufacturers solve business and supply chain problems.
Not only was the companies’ $560 million investment in their complex the second-largest single industrial investment in the state since BMW built an auto plant in the early 1990s, it also signaled a profound transition in the commercial aviation industry away from traditional metal components and toward reinforced composites.
“We’ve long said that a slowdown in one industry sector won’t hurt the cluster as a whole,” Maier said. “Among the things that’s so significant about the 787 project in North Charleston is that it virtually guarantees at least one sector will be tremendously strong for years to come.”
At the SCMEP, Maier continues to consider how to marshal a statewide effort that will pull all these composite industry elements together.
“We sponsored a study awhile back by the Export Consortium that found South Carolina has one heck of a composites industry—we’ve got everything from low-tech to high-tech, and we’re already 17th in the country in terms of employment in the industry,” Maier said.
“The problem is, how do you pull together a cluster that encompasses everything from chemicals to fibers to molding to weaving?” he asked.
One approach has been to look for commonality in the issues that impact the disparate businesses in the state, whether it involves supply chains issues, their ability to find new people to work on the factory floor or attract more chemical engineers to the state, Maier said.
“This state is rich in composites manufacturing, just rich in it,” he said. “If we can get these companies working together on common causes, that’ll go a long way toward forging a real identity for the industry here,” he said.
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