Gefinex: a Swedish company setting up in Liege
Gefinex Benelux SA, a subsidiary of the Swedish Group Fagerdala World Foams, is building a brand new production plant in Liege-Thimister. Mr. Strasser, their manager, explains why Liege was chosen: "The Liege-Thimister business park is located along a developed highway network and is close to the most important European industrial centers. The whole infrastructure of the business park itself is also excellent, thanks chiefly to the immediate availability of steam which will foster a very good energetic production in the new entity.Furthermore Liege is located within a very efficient scientific environment. Surrounding universities and research centers constitute ideal partners. Obviously, it is very easy to recruit multilingual, qualified and highly educated staff members". last but not least, a research program is to be set up, it will be subsidized by the Walloon Region.
Total investment should reach 360 million Belgian francs ($ 10.3 million). The new factory, active in the production of thermoplastic and strictly ecological foam, will at first supply the markets of Benelux and France.
Further Norwegian investment
Hydro Aluminium, worldwide leader in aluminium extrusion and a subsidiary of the Norwegian group Norsk Hydro, made a further investment of 200 million BEF ($ 5.7 million) in its Belgian extrusion plant Hydro Aluminium Raeren located close the German and Dutch borders. A new press of 3200 tons for the extrusion of aluminium profiles has been installed. This investment was made possible thanks to the positive social climate and the commitment of the mother company to maintain a modern plant in the Province of Liege to supply the Benelux countries and Germany with aluminium profiles.
Since 1986, when the unit was bought from Alcan Aluminium (Canada), Hydro Aluminium has been investing an average of 90 million BEF ($2.6 million) per year.
Italian Transmec Co. expanding distribution facilities
Transmec Belgium is expanding its distribution facilities in Liege, considered as fast as moving area. Transmec is an Italian Group specialized in distribution by air, road as well as waterways. They have been located in Liege-Chaineux ever since 1995. Willing to ensure ever more rapid services to their clients, aong wich figure Armani, Fiat Agri and New Holland, they have moved into the Hauts-Sarts business park. Situated next door to Liege Airport and beside Liege Logistics, a center specifically designed for advanced freight transport, it makes it a perfect location. The decision for relocating here was determined on the grounds of this oustanding location, a 10 minute drive from Liege downtown, along a major higway crossroads from and to the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Germany.
Research Triangle
Liege is a think tank. This has again been confirmed both in the fields of space and medicine.
Starring in space
White Sands Missile Range US base, New Mexico, 16th October. Launching of the EIT CALROC probe rocket whose purpose is to observe the sun's activities. The project is led by the US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C., together with the Liege Space Center and the Institut d' Astrophysique Spatial d'Orsay, France.
The Liege Space Center is responsible for the design and the manufacture of the mechanical parts of the camera, qualifying tests in vibration and the final fitting.
Undoubtedly Liege has developed worlwide renowed performances in space technologies.
Albert Einstein World Award
The 1997 Albert Einstein World Award of Science was awarded by the World Cultural Council to Jean-Marie Ghuysen in Bankok, Thailand on November 12th. Emeritus Professor in Microbiology, J-M Ghuysen disclosed the chemistry of the bacterial cell and contributed massively to the identification of the mechanism of action of penicillin on bacteria and the emergence of resistance among bacterial pathogens.
The international scientific community regards his work as one of the most brilliant studies on biological macromolecules. In 1990, he set up the Center for Protein Engineering in Liege, made up of nearly 60 reseachers. A large number of foreign associates or participants from their own labs have been incoroporated into his work.
Professor Ghuysen has already been awarded many prizes for his research, among which we may mention in 1989 Gairdner Foundation International Award in Medical Science and the 1991 Unesco Award in Microbiology.
This is a Smart Center!
The Smart is on the way. Liege will be there to welcome it. Designed and produced by MCC the Smart is said to be a revolutionary car, small and specifically adopted for city driving. MCC, which stands for Micro Compact Car, is a joint venture between the German Mecedez-Benz and the Swiss SMH, already renowned for the succes of Swatch watches. MCC is setting up the first Belgian distribution center in Liege. On a 4000 m2 area, it will be used for selling and the follow-up service for the cars.
Liege has been chosen mainly for its geographical location, right in the middle of the two majors highways, close to Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. There will be only 4 smart centers in Belgium.
EVS : World leader in digital video recorders
They succeeded during Olympic games in Atlanta in 1996. They will be attending the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan in 1998. And they will be on hand at the Football World Cup in France in 1998.
The Liege company, EVS Broadcast Equipment, specializing in digital video recorder development, is now a worldwide leader. They are responsible for a great amount of slow motion filming. Slow motion research is done instantly thanks to the hard disk and to highly performing moving cameras. This way they offer unmatched image quality.
Following their installation in New York and Honk Kong, new offices are to open in Paris, London, Buenos Aires and Dubai. The Liege headquaters will soon benefit from brand new facilities within the Scientific Park.
A Liege-Japan Association
An agreement has just been concluded between Molis ans Sysmex.
Located in Liege-Barchon, MOLIS, which stands for Modular Open Laboratory Information Systems, is a SMB specialized in software design. This software is capable of meeting the administrative and technical needs rationally for a modern laboratory for medical analyses. Sysmex is a Japanese company, N°2 worldwide in the manufacture of medical analysis laboratory equipment for hematology, their home office is located in Kobe, Japan. Specialized in robotics, the latter was looking for a highly advanced partner in data processing.
Founded in 1988, MOLIS already equipped several laboratories and universities centers in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland.
