Durr AG, the No. 1 global builder of automotive paint shops, has consolidated three Detroit-area facilities into a $40 million technical center in Southfield.
The R&D center, a former DTE Energy Co. facility that Durr purchased and renovated, houses a paint line and oven that allows Durr to test new paint lines before installment.
The three operations being consolidated were in Auburn Hills, Plymouth Township and Wixom. The company announced the plans in March 2015.
Last year, the company generated global automotive sales of $2.45 billion.
In the first three months of 2016, Durr’s overall global revenue — both automotive and nonautomotive — declined 2.8 percent to $920 million. But orders for future business rose 17 percent for the period to $1.2 billion.
“Demand was particularly strong in North America and Europe,” Durr CEO Ralf Dieter said in a statement. “The order pipeline is amply filled in China, where there are also signs of an increase in capital spending on production facilities for electric cars.”
Aside from paint equipment, Durr produces assembly lines, conveyors, glues for bodies-in-white and office furniture.
Durr is based near Stuttgart, Germany.
Photo by Durr SystemsA rendering of Durr Systems’s new Southfield campus.
