$24M DOE loan to Ligonier ...

The loan is the first made to an automotive parts supplier as part of the DOE's $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Incentive Program.

Oct 29, 2009 (Goshen News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TEN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- A Ligonier factory is getting some indirect help from the government.

On Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy had awarded a $24 million conditional loan commitment to Lake Forest, Ill.-based Tenneco Inc. for the development of fuel-efficient emission control
components for advanced technology vehicles. Manufacture of the systems will take place at Tenneco facilities in Ligonier, Litchfield and Marshall, Mich., and Seward, Neb.

"Not only are these loans ensuring American workers can produce the best, most fuel-efficient cars in the world, but they're also helping to reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and our carbon footprint," Secretary Chu said in a DOE press release. "In the process, we're creating clean energy jobs that can't be shipped overseas."

The loan is the first made to an automotive parts supplier as part of the DOE's $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Incentive Program. As part of the eligibility requirements for the loans, the company's manufacturing facilities must be located within the U.S. and engineering integration must be performed in the U.S.

The loan will be used to create and produce emission control components for gas, hybrid and diesel vehicle engines. Included among those components are catalytic converters, diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filters and selective catalytic reduction units. According to the DOE, more than 2 million cars and light trucks built between model years 2010 and 2014 will be equipped with the components.

Jim Spangler, a spokesperson for Tenneco, said a total of nine of the company's advanced technology programs will be supported by the loan. Several of those, he said, will be supported out of the Ligonier plant. The facility has also been boosted by a recent increase in business.

"Levels are probably as strong as they've been all year because production has improved here in the second half of 2009," Spangler said. "Our customers are building more vehicles, so our production has increased at Ligonier and at most of our plants across the country."

Tenneco representatives had been working on the loan process for almost a year, according to Spangler. The company was able to submit their application before the Dec. 31, 2008 deadline for the first round of loan awards. In addition to the work of their own employees, Sen. Evan Bayh, R-Ind. and Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd District, also helped support the company's efforts.

"It was really a comprehensive effort," Spangler said. "I would describe it as an impressively thorough process with the Department of Energy, but they were very easy to work with."

According to a press release from the company, Tenneco is one of the world's largest designers, manufacturers and marketers of emission control and ride control products and systems for the automotive original equipment market and the aftermarket. The $5.9 billion global manufacturing company employs approximately 21,000 worldwide.

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