Plasteurope.com - HEXAGON COMPOSITES: LPG cylinder plant opens in Russia / Expansion at US facility to quadruple output for bus and truck market

Plasteurope.com - HEXAGON COMPOSITES: 
LPG cylinder plant opens in Russia /
Expansion at US facility to quadruple output for bus and truck market

HEXAGON COMPOSITES

LPG cylinder plant opens in Russia / Expansion at US facility to quadruple output for bus and truck market

Responding to market trends in natural gas-rich countries Russia and the US, Norwegian composite pressure vessel producer Hexagon Composites (Ålesund; www.hexagon.no) has officially begun composite gas cylinder production capacity in Nizhny Novgorod and has plans to quadruple its output at its Lincoln, Nebraska facility.

Rugasco, the joint venture between Hexagon Composites and automotive plastics components manufacturer Autocomponent (Nizhny Novgorod / Russia; www.autocomponent.info), has opened what it claims is to be Russia's first composite gas cylinder plant in Nizhny Novgorod. The plant has a capacity to produce 200,000 (liquid petroleum gas) LPG cylinders annually. The automated production line was transferred from the facility of Hexagon’s subsidiary Composite Scandinavia in Sweden, which was closed down in 2012.

Meanwhile, in the US, one of the most important drivers in the gas-powered vehicle market is the low price of natural gas resulting from developments in the North American shale gas market. As a result, Hexagon Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska / USA; www.hexagonlincoln.com) has invested NOK 105m (EUR 14m) in doubling its production capacity for “Tuffshell” compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders to meet this growth.