This global renovation program, involving facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia reconfigures its 10-plant machine clothing footprint to serve its customers more effectively with better lead times and global availability of its innovative and rapidly-growing portfolio of patented technology. Key highlights of these projects:

North America – the expansion of the Kentville, Canada forming fabric plant to manufacture woven dryer fabrics in North America for the first time in over a decade. The expansion transitions Xerium from a position of being competitively disadvantaged in dryer fabrics to improved responsiveness to customer quality and delivery expectations. The existing sales force can now leverage relationships in complementary products to accelerate penetration in this currently underserved market. The commissioning of this newly expanded facility and the installed assets was completed in Q3 2015.

South America – the renovation and expansion of the Piracicaba, Brazil plant to manufacture spiral dryer fabrics. Xerium previously manufactured spiral dryer fabrics at its smaller and higher cost Argentina plant. Upon closure of this facility, Xerium made the strategic decision to purchase all new production equipment and modernize its product technology. This initiative, the largest of the four, will enable Xerium to offer both higher quality products and shorter lead times, while operating under a significantly more advantageous cost structure and was fully operational in Q3 2015.

Europe – the expansion of the Gloggnitz, Austria plant to produce belts and fabrics for nonwoven fabrics machines. Xerium has installed special-purpose machines, which will more than double its global capacity for its nonwoven products portfolio. Concurrent with this expansion, Xerium enhanced its product technology to deliver higher levels of performance on the most modern nonwoven production lines and will provide global support for a variety of product types from this site. This expansion further leverages one of Xerium’s most cost competitive and high quality facilities. The expansion is on schedule to reach its full production rate capability by year-end 2015.

Asia – the expansion of the Asahi, Japan plant to produce Xerium’s most advanced forming fabrics for containerboard machines. Xerium has historically manufactured machine clothing for large containerboard machines in its European plants and shipped them to Asia. This investment enables Xerium to serve the Japanese and the entire Asian markets locally with shorter lead times, significantly lower shipping costs to the customer while delivering Xerium’s most modern product portfolio. The commissioning is underway and remains on schedule to reach its full production rate capability by year-end 2015.