Released on May 14, 2010

A group of investors purchased the former Intermet metalcasting facilities in Radford, Va., and Lynchburg, Va., on May 7 and plans to restart the Radford-based ductile iron plant within the next six weeks.

According to one of the principals in the deal, the metalcasting assets were purchased by a Michigan-based group that is part owner of Cadillac Casting Inc., Cadillac, Mich., and other manufacturing assets.

“It was kind of a package deal to buy both of the plants,” said Cadillac CEO Dan Minor, one of the investors. “We are going to concentrate on Radford.”

According to Minor, the investors had been working with Huron Consulting Group and the former Intermet ownership for two months to finalize the facility purchases. Minor said his group did not yet have a plan for the Lynchburg plant, but he expects the Radford plant to be operational in four to six weeks. The facility, which hasn’t poured iron since Dec. 17, 2009, must be brought back up to production speed and some of its capacity must be sold before that can happen.

“[The facility] has two automatic mold machines, is roughly 200,000 sq. ft., and offers state-of-the-art continuous flow,” Minor said. “It is capable of producing about 90,000 tons of castings per year, and we believe we can start it with 20,000 tons of castings [sold].”

In addition to the safety critical automotive chassis castings produced at the plant by the previous owners, the new owners plan to introduce comparable ductile iron jobs to the production lines, including castings for the heavy equipment, commercial highway, agricultural and nuclear markets.

Minor said that while the facility will be left in the hands of the previous management team going forward, he and his partners also plan to introduce their own operating philosophies into the business.

“We’re metalcasting people,” he said. “Ray Witt, my mentor, [was] one of the greatest foundrymen ever. We plan on bringing the same kind of philosophies to this facility.”