Moog Medical Devices inaugurated a facility to produce infusion and alimentation devices at Free Zone “El Coyol”, in Alajuela.
The plant features 6.000 square meters of space, required an investment of $3.5 million and will employ 250 people in 2010, and 400 in 2012.
Moog’s Costa Rican operation is the first opened outside the United States. From here, the company will export directly to the U.S., and in a second phase to Europe and Asia.
The medical devices company will close a facility in Florida, U.S., and move it to Costa Rica.
This plant, located in the city of Doral, produces parts for stents used in treatment of heart disease, and employs 1.400 people. Boston Scientific expects to definitively close the facility in 2013.
From Miamiherald.com: "The company is transferring the plant's work to a vacant facility in Costa Rica, where labor costs are much lower, said Frank Nero, president of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council".
Exports of some products increased despite the crisis: meat, melon, fruit purée, fruit concentrates, fruit juices and medical devices.
Even though Costa Rican exports diminished 14.2% in the first semester of 2009 when compared to the same period of the same year, some sectors of the economy remained stable, and some even registered increases.
In his Nacion.com article, Marvin Barquero extracts details from the exports report by the Costa Rican Trade Promotion Agency (Procomer): "Melon shipments increased 11%, and fruit juices and concentrates 14.2%. Meat exports increased 12%, fruit purée 7% and medical infusion devices, medicines and medical devices exports increased 8%, 4% and 6% respectively".
The multinational medical equipment manufacturer will open its plant in November in Coyol, Alajuela.
The site in Coyol, which will employ 200 people, will produce infusion pumps and irrigation pumps for IVs.
Hassel Fallas wrote in La Nacion’s website: "The site in Coyol is the first one that Moog will open outside the US, following the acquisition of Curlin Medical Company in 2006.
The plant produces medical cardiovascular applications equipment and currently employs 65 people.
The facility is located 14 kilometers north of San Jose in the Metro Free Trade Zone in Heredia and has 3,000 square feet of space.
In a press release, the company, a subsidiary of ATEK Companies, a U.S. manufacturing consortium in several industries, has announced plans to employ 150 or more people in the future.
In 2008 the Costa Rican medical devices sector will have exported $960 million and employed 7500 professionals and technicians.
These sales projections were made by Cinde based on data from the Foreign Trade Promoter. The $960 million in the sale of medical implements this year exceeded last years figure ($768 million) by $192 million.
ATEK Medical, a division of ATEK Companies, announced that it has opened a medical device manufacturing facility in Heredia, Costa Rica.
“With this new investment, ATEK Medical has doubled its manufacturing capacity and strengthened its ability to offer unparalleled manufacturing and new product launch services to the medical device industry,” said Kay Phillips, president, ATEK Companies.
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