Land ho! Big machine’s long voyage to Southwestern Ontario finally reaches shore

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PORT STANLEY – An enormous shipment bound for an Elgin County tool and die company has finally arrived at this Lake Erie beach town after a three-month voyage that began more than 12,000 kilometres away.

After leaving Taiwan in the third week of September, followed by stops in Asia, New York, Halifax, Montreal and Hamilton, the three largest components of a custom-built stamping press, totalling about 545 tonnes, finally arrived at Port Stanley’s harbour on a 30-metre barge around noon on Wednesday.

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The stamping press will expand operations of Etbo Tool and Die Ltd, located 15 kilometres southeast of near Aylmer. It supplies tooling, automation and automotive parts, said its owner, Etienne Borm.

“Based on the price of it . . . we clearly think it’s critically important,” Borm said of the stamping press, which is “by far the most expensive” piece of equipment ever purchased by the company, founded in 1958 in Bayham – a township about 55 kilometres southeast of London.

With a final installation price tag of about $7 million, the total weight of the machinery is about 770 tonnes or the equivalent to about 280 pickup trucks, and will tower four-storeys high once it is assembled, Borm said.

The stamping press will help the company and its 200 employees provide further components to the electrified vehicle market in battery structures, coolers and hydrogen fuel cell markets, Borm said.

Borm said the equipment will allow the company to adapt to the changing automobile industry, noting the new machinery is “critical” to keeping up with the switch from combustion engines to electric vehicles.

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“The automotive industry, obviously, is going through some measured transition into electrification,” Borm said. “It’s critically important, to maintain the success of the company and keep everyone employed, that we make sure that we’re an active part of the EV transition.”

Volkswagen is building a $7-billion electric vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas, about 30 kilometres west of Etbo’s facility. It is expected to open in 2027. Although Borm said the proximity of the battery plant wasn’t the only reason for Etbo’s purchase of its newest piece of machinery, he credited the EV battery factory as being “50 per cent” of the decision.

“I would fully hope that, somehow, this new piece of equipment, it gets utilized by our friends with Volkswagen,” Borm said, adding he hopes the equipment will contribute to Etbo’s growth, and add more jobs in Elgin County.

Elgin County Warden Ed Ketchabaw noted Etbo’s newly acquired machinery appears to be a positive spin-off from the VW plant.

“It’s good news for Elgin County, and of course, the machine itself has applications, or could be used in the EV battery applications,” Ketchabaw said. “So, that’s a good indication of an initial tertiary spinoff from (Volkswagen).”

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Ketchabaw also said the region as a whole could benefit from the plant, through “spillover effects” it generates, whether it’s jobs in the service industry or the creation of new businesses.

“I think it’s great that some of our existing businesses are able to tap into that particular industry in order to supply components, and it provides employment for our area,” Ketchabaw said. “Let’s face it, you can’t locate every business in St. Thomas to do this, and you can’t locate every resident who’s going to work there in St Thomas.”

About 30 onlookers were present Wednesday around 12:45 p.m. when The Free Press was at Port Stanley harbour. Around 20 workers already had begun to unload the three pieces of equipment off the barge, a process that could take upward of 12 hours, Borm said.

It could be two or three months before the stamping press is fully assembled, Borm said.

bwilliams@postmedia.com

@BrianWatLFPress

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada

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