BMW/SGL break ground on third production building

MOSES LAKE--Carbon fiber production at the BMW/SGL manufacturing plant will essentially triple once the plant's third production building is up and running.

SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers submitted a building permit application for a third building at their Moses Lake plant last month, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article.

Officials from BMW and SGL shared more information on their plans to expand the Moses Lake site during a media event Friday.

The plant currently produces about 3,000 metric tons of carbon fiber a year with two production lines in one building. The plant's second building, with lines three and four, will be commissioned this summer and bring the plant's capacity to 6,000 metric tons of fiber a year.

Production lines five and six, which are expected to be completed by 2015, will triple capacities to 9,000 metric tons annually.

The addition of the third building will make the Moses Lake plant the world's largest carbon fiber manufacturing plant, according to SGL officials.

The expansion represents an additional investment of $200 million and will result in the creation of 120 new jobs at the plant.

Carbon fiber produced at the plant is used exclusively in BMW's i-series line of cars. The cars are assembled in Leipzig, Germany.

Among the state and local officials that attended the event were Gov. Jay Inslee, Commerce director Brian Bonlender, Moses Lake Mayor Dick Deane and Port of Moses Lake and Grant County PUD officials.

For more on this story, read Monday's Columbia Basin Herald.

-- Staff report