ustxtxb_obs_1992_07_04_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

2554 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD HOUSE April 25, 1991 Without going into details, some of the industries available locally today are: Foundries for cast alloy steels, gray iron castings and investment castings. Heavy forgings and auto parts forgings, tools, jigs and fixtures, dies and patterns manufacture, huge capacity for turning, milling. grinding and heat treatment, except carburizing continuous furnaces, some CNC machine tools manufacturing commencing. stamping and miscellaneous parts machining. high speed steel tools, batteries, fibre glass, tyres, spark plugs, aluminimum injection molding, glass for windows and windscreens, plastic injection molding \(for TV other activities. All in all it is evident that the technological degree and production capacity achieved by Iraq is much higher and perhaps better, than many other Middle East countries. The professionalism and technical level of employees and managers, in parallel with their discipline, makes a good impression and is very promising for the future manufacture of automotive parts and components in Iraq. VISIT TO THE INDUSTRIAL SITESIRAQ General NAZAR EL-KASSER organized visits to several industrial facilities around Baghdad and near BABYLON, for the VOLVO GM/Eaton delegation. The visits were well organized and carried out in two days, Thursday 29th June and Saturday 1st July_ SUMMARY Plant 1 Precision Castings or Investment Castings foundry, using Lost Wax methods. Capacity 1,500 tonnes p.a. Very updated in technology with its own tools and dies shop. Engineering office quite modern in concept and in process of Implementation of CAD/CAM systems. Automatic quality control for most of the components and extremely clean. Plant 2 Nasser Enterprise, Special Steel Foundry products: gray iron, low carbon steel, high chromium steel, heat resistant steel and high manganese steel. Ductile iron programmed for early 1990. Capacity 22,000 Tonnes per year in two shifts. 2 Disamati Auto Molding Line Capacity 330 molds/hour per line. Danish made. I Konkelwagner Automatic molding line with capacity up to 50 molts/hour. W. German made. 5 of 6 tonnes each of mid. frequency induction furnaces with 3 electrical feeder 2 Arc furnaces. 7 tonnes each. Hand molding for low volumes up to 6 tonnes. Heat treatment: Annealing, tempering. quenching. etc. Manning: Total 1.000 people in 3 shifts. Capacity available 40/50 percent. Plant 3 Large machinery shop dedicated to the manufacture of Tools. Dies. Patterns. approx. 160 machines available of the best makes possible to find: Blohm grinders. Sips Jig Borers. Hausers jig grinders, Voumard grinders, Oerlikon & Shaudt grinders, to name some of them. Plant Approx. 150 mts. x 120 mts. Computerised quality control. Engineering and design aided by CAD/ CAM, mechanical test department. Plalit,4 Pressing Shop. 1,500 tonnes hydraulic presses, continuous processing line with induction heating. shearing and pressing, all in an auto feeding line. Plant 5 press with ejectors double effect presses. Plant 6 CNC Lathes assembly lineUnder Matrix Churchill license. In the second step early next year they will machine the frames and other mechanical parts and in the 3rd phase they will go to the electronics. Today they use Fantle. It. is interesting to note that Matrix Churchill in the UK is 75 percent owned by the Iraqi government. We were told that a similar, ,project exists for the manufacture of CNC machining cen. tres. The building is already under construction. Plant 7 General Machining Shopwith high capacity for turning, milling, grinding and heat treatment. This shop will be assigned to the Automotive Industry. Plant 8 Plastic Molding. tonnes presses for plastic injection molding. Plant 9 Jigs. fixtures; tools, dies and guages manufacturing plant. These can machine large parts. not forging dies, milling cutters, drills reamers, gear cutting tools fellows type and hobbs. supported by its own Engineering office and test lab. Plant 10 Forging Plantseveral hydraulic presses capacity. Plant 11 High speed steel tools, heat treatment in vacuum. CNC machining centre for hot pacity. Plant 12′ Large machining shop with huge equipment with a mill/planner up to 24 Mts. length. Plant 13 General TurningEnormous turning capacity with copy lathes and a large number of CNC lathes up to 500 mm dia swing capacity. Most of them Diamant and Matrix Churchill makes. Plant 14 General Machining Shopfor fasteners, small and miscellaneous parts. Large amount of Index machines and Gildemeising centres with double tool magazine. We also saw another building about 200 mts. by 100 mts. which will be a high volume Foundry. with capacity up to 70,000 tonnes. per year. mainly to produce centrifugal castings. General Nazar told us that there is also in implementation an aluminlnum die casting facility in the next 12 months with injection molding as well. There are 2 plants that produce 4,000,000 tyres/year for truck and buses and 3 more in construction. Facilities to manufacture batteries with license from Chloride USA with high capacity. Spark plugs factory. Marelli license with 20.000,000 capacity per year. Fibre glass plant also is available and is under study. A bearing manufacturing fa cility and other industries are under study. DETENSE EXPORTERS’ SECRET WEAPONS By For embattled weapons exporters, it wits a salvo heard round the world. Last July. Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger fired off a classified memo to all U.S. embassies urging that U.S. defense fir/xis be given more help marketing weapons abroad. Some industry leaders boast that the Eagleburger memo was written at their behest. several months after a January 1990 meeting with defense executives. And these leaders say that Eagleburger’s directive is starting to, provide an extra fillip for foreign sales. The memo. is just one result: of the Bush administration’s decision to put the government firmly in the business of promoting defense exports. Ambassadors now open doors. weapons makers .may soon qualify for government-backed loans, and the State De partinent helps push sales. ‘ But the change of policy is controversial and ironically timed, as the war in Iraq raises new worries about the proliferation of weapons. A key proponent of the pro-export policy has been Eagleburger. But he is dogged by ethical concerns about his dealings with fOrnier business associates. One industry representative at the January meeting with Eagleburger was chief executive of a defense subsidiary of the ITT Corp. Eagleburger was a director of the ITT Corp. before taking office in 1989 and will eventually receive benefits from the corporation’s pension plan. He pledged to recuse himself from government matters in which the giant conglomerate Is a formal party. In addition, as president of the consulting firm Kissinger Associates Inc., Eagleburger did work. for ITT. At least one critic believes that Eagleburger erred by participating in the meeting with the ITT official and by writing the directive. promoting defense exporters. But a State Department legal expert. says that Eagleburger. who declines comment, did not violate his recusal pledges. ADMINISTRATION AID Eagleburger’s memo is just one of several administration moves to provide help overseas for weapons makers. President George Bush’s budget proposal. for instance, authorizes the Export-Import Bank of the United States to provide in the next fiscal year up to $1 billion in loan guarantees for defense products. Several companies have pushed hard for such guarantees. In a bid to’ make their deals more competitive with foreign rivals. ‘ In addition, the State Department last year jettisoned its Office of Munitions Control, long a target of criticism from the defense industry because of delays in processing license applications. The office was replaced with a larger operation that for the first time has an export-promotion component. Industry leaders say the new Center for Defense Trade has already made a clear difference in speeding up the licensing process. ”The difference between 1980 and 1990 is pretty close to a quantum leap,” says Fred Haynes, a vice president for planning at the L’TV Corp. “The most significant change is that defense exporters are receiving cooperative.support from U.S. agencies and are no longer viewed as pariahs.” “I think we’ve found that a number of embassies are more supportive.” agrees George Perlman, president of Marlin Marietta International Inc. “It has been helpful for the people that I have overseas.” The backing for weapons exports follows high-powered lobbying by leading defense trade groups, including the Aerospace Industries Association and the American League for Exports and Security Assistance. In addition, several defense contractors have served as effective advocates for their cause. They Include some CEOs and other 14 JULY 4, 1992