Released on January 26, 2009

Previously downsizing metalcaster Citation Corp., Novi, Mich., announced it has completed the acquisition of lost foam supply company Foseco-Morval, Bessemer, Ala.

According to a press release issued by Citation, Foseco-Morval’s lost foam pattern molding capabilities will be integrated with the company’s lost foam facility in Columbiana, Ala. The new business will operate as Citation Lost Foam Patterns LLC. Citation expects the acquisition to expand its offerings of iron lost foam castings for chassis, power train and suspension components for the transportation and industrial markets.

“The acquisition of Foseco-Morval strengthens our position as the technology and market leader for lost foam castings and will help create new business opportunities,” said Doug Grimm, Citation’s chief executive officer.

Citation announced last September the elimination of 18% of its workforce and the closing of its Lufkin, Texas, metalcasting facility, a plant it had previously throttled back to half-capacity. The company said it planned to focus on emerging markets and align its capacity with customer demand, which had decreased with the decline of the automotive industry.
 
Foseco-Morval is the lost foam casting division of Foseco, a supplier of metallurgical chemicals to the metalcasting industry that became a division of the Vesuvius group when it was purchased last April. In late June, Foseco announced it planned to close its Guelph, Ontario, complex, which includes the operations of Foseco-Morval. The lost foam supplier ceased operations on Oct. 31.

At the time of that announcement, Foseco-Morval CEO and President Brian Alquist said the company was in “negotiations with another lost foam company to transfer [its] Guelph operations to a new location.”

Foseco supplies a variety of metalcasting consumable products in addition to lost foam patterns. The group operates 29 production facilities in 17 countries, with major operations in Germany, U.S., U.K., Brazil, China, India, South Korea and Japan.

Citation said more than 30 hourly and salaried Foseco-Morval employees will remain at the Bessemer facility. The privately held company now employs 2,300 in Alabama, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, down from 2,600 at the end of 2008.