A metal maker Goose Creek that is building large-scale parts for the United States Navythe next generation nuclear submarine is expanding its operations in the Charleston International Manufacturing Center.
Defense Contractor W International it now employs around 300 workers and plans to hire another 200 by the end of this year. As the company grows, it is adding amenities for employees, including a training center, two cafeterias and more office space. The work, to be completed this summer, is being financed by a $ 55 million contract that the company received last year as part of the Title III of the Defense Production Law.
“The sites have been classified and we are almost ready to start building the facilities in the next two weeks,” he said Ed Walker, CEO of W International.
The training facility will provide instructions on welding, electrical hydraulics, mooring, craning and safety as W International begins to build larger metal platforms and other structures for Virginia class of submarines and Gerald Ford Class aircraft carrier. Training is necessary, Walker said, as the contractor takes on new works, such as the manufacture of tubes for the hydraulic electrical parts of Navy ships.
The cafeterias will give the company’s growing workforce a place to take a break and have a snack in an industrial area with few existing dining options. Walker said the company has not decided whether to include vending machines, provide hot meals or a combination of both.
A new office for supervisors is also under construction in the 451,000-square-foot cube-shaped building that is the centerpiece of the W International campus. The 225-foot-tall building adjacent to the Cooper River is where the largest military parts are manufactured and placed on barges to be transported to customers.
W International is operating a full shift and a partial second shift, with additional plans to increase in the coming months.
“We expect steady growth, perhaps 20 employees per month, with a combination of skilled labor, purchasing, engineering and administrative personnel,” said Walker. “We will be hiring fairly consistently for the next three to four years as we build the site.”
Last year, W International installed new equipment – including three high definition plasma cutting tables measuring 16 feet wide and 200 feet long – to make the steel platforms and other structures necessary to build the next attack submarines. generation that are seen as a critical part of the nation’s defense strategy.
W international counts General Dynamics electric boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, the main contractors of the Columbia class submarine, as its main customers.
Volvo Cars’ line of SUVs helped the Swedish automaker to beat the previous year’s sales by 1.8% in 2020. Supplied / Volvo Cars
SUV increase
Volvo Cars overcame factory closures due to coronavirus and Mexico’s shortage of parts to record a small increase in annual US sales in 2020, the automaker reported.
Volvo sold 110,129 vehicles for an increase of 1.8 percent over the 2019 total.
“Given the challenges our industry faced this year, I am very excited about what our employees and retail partners have been able to achieve together,” Anders Gustafsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars USA, said in a statement. “Coming out of a strong 2019 (10% increase compared to 2018) and navigating the impact of the pandemic, I am extremely proud to have closed the year with an increase of 1.8% in the USA and to guarantee an impressive result in December in the Americas. “
Volvo’s SUV lineup continued to account for the majority of sales by the Swedish-owned automaker in China Geely Holding Group. The luxurious XC90 SUV accounted for 34,251 sales in the U.S. last year, followed by the mid-size XC60 with 32,078 sales and the compact XC40 with 23,778.
The S60 sedan, which Volvo builds on its $ 1.1 billion manufacturing campus in Berkeley County near Ridgeville, accounted for 11,946 sales in 2020 – the fourth most popular vehicle in the automaker’s range.
Reach David Wren at 843-937-5550 or on Twitter at @David_Wren_