GE Energy’s Industrial Solutions business recently celebrated the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Santiago, building on a commitment to provide reliable electrical distribution product and service solutions to its Latin American customers in a more timely, cost-effective manner. The products assembled at the facility – including Industrial Solutions’ low and medium voltage switchgear and motor control centres are delivered to customers working across a variety of industries in Latin America, but particularly the mining and metals industries.
“With more than 115 years of experience working in the Latin American region, GE successfully delivers reliable technologies and services that help our customers manage, automate and optimise their electrical power,” said Luis Ramirez, CEO of GE Energy’s Industrial Solutions business. “We have established ourselves as a strategic business supplier to many of the largest companies in the mining, metals and pulp and paper industries. Today, we not only celebrate the grand opening of our new facility in Santiago, but also our long-term commitment to the region. We will continue to operate and share knowledge locally to provide employment opportunities and training in high-tech engineering positions for the next generation of Latin Americans.”
Recognising local companies’ need for advanced technology that provides a reliable electrical infrastructure, GE Energy’s Industrial Solutions
business states that it opened the manufacturing facility in Santiago to localise operations and therefore cut delivery time and costs for its customers. “Many of our customers’ mine sites are located in some of the most extreme environments in the world, and we count on Industrial Solutions’ rugged, reliable systems to power our customer’s operations,” said Alfonso Teplizky, General Manager of Morgan Industrial South America, one of the region’s leading distributors to mining companies. “By having GE’s global resources and expertise available to us at the local level, we are together able to help our customers find better ways to increase output, improve quality and uphold the highest safety standards while decreasing costs.”
Home to key copper, silver, nickel, zinc and other metals and mined products in high global demand, the mining industry in Latin America is expected to maintain its rapid growth in the coming years. The Centre for Copper and Mining Studies (CESCO) estimates that approximately $250 billion will be invested in Latin American mining projects by 2020. GE first entered the region in 1896 and currently has more than 19,700 employees working in 31 countries in Latin America. Understanding the challenges of mining in more remote and deeper locations brought about by increased demand for minerals, GE Energy created GE Mining Solutions to “collaboratively develop with clients the advanced technologies needed to continue their success.”