TPI: Local operations not affected<br> by company’s expansion elsewhere

Three months after announcing major expansion and new construction of manufacturing facilities in Mexico and China, TPI Composites is scouting a location for a fourth factory.
This time Newton, Iowa, is one of multiple locations the company is looking at.
“We are considering hiring more than 700 workers,” said Steven Lockard, president and CEO of the Warren-based company, which manufactures large-scale composite structures such as blades for wind turbines and components for military vehicles and mass transit vehicles.
But Lockard would give no further comment, except to say that there are “no plans for any changes to the company’s Rhode Island operations.” More specifically, there are no plans to move headquarters to the location the company is scouting.
Cindy Sebrell, spokesperson for TPI Composites, said the company is not ready to disclose what would be manufactured in Iowa, if it should choose to build a factory there.
And asked whether Rhode Island is one of the multiple locations TPI Composites is considering, she said the company is not ready to disclose that information either.
John Riendeau, sector lead for the defense industry at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation and a key contact for TPI Composites, said to his knowledge, Rhode Island is not being considered as a location for this particular project because the company is looking for a location close to the market it will serve.
He said it is his understanding that TPI Composites chooses locations close to its markets because the products it builds are large and cumbersome to transport.
The company’s new 190,000-square-foot facility in China, for example, is to serve the wind energy industry in Asia, Lockard said in a past interview with Providence Business News. And the expansion of the company’s operations in Mexico came from increased demand for wind turbine blades in the Western United States.
TPI Composites expects to employ 450 people in China, Lockard said. The company employs 400 people between its operations in Mexico and Springfield, Ohio. And it employs 100 people at its headquarters in Rhode Island. If the company employs 700 people in a fifth location, it would bring total employment to about 1,650 employees worldwide.
“We see that as good news,” Riendeau said. “It means the company is expanding.”
And because TPI Composites’ administration and research and development capacities are in Rhode Island, Riendeau said, it means that the company might hire more people to handle the increased workload brought about by the expansion.
In addition, Riendeau said, there is still a possibility that the company could start manufacturing wind turbine blades in the state if proposals such as Cape Wind in Massachusetts materialize.
Cape Wind, developed by Energy Management Inc., would create an offshore wind farm consisting of 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in the Nantucket Sound.
In that case, and in the case of other initiatives including state-led initiatives such as RIWINDS, there is a possibility that TPI Composites will expand its operations in Rhode Island, he said.
On the military side of the company’s business, TPI Composites a week ago announced the development of a prototype Humvee-like vehicle made out of composite components, the first all-composite military vehicle of its kind.
TPI Composites partnered with Armor Holdings Inc. to develop the prototype, and the two companies signed a long-term agreement for the production and supply of the vehicles to the military.
The prototype was designed to demonstrate durability and weight savings of about 900 pounds when compared with other tactical trucks used by the U.S. Army, according to a TPI press release. The weight savings allows the truck to carry more armor and other important equipment for military personnel.
“I think the significance of having a growing, expanding company like TPI in Rhode Island is good for Rhode Island,” Riendeau said.