KUALA LUMPUR: CTRM Aero Composites Sdn Bhd, the aerospace arm of DRB-Hicom Bhd , is planning to open a new plant next year to meet growing demand from plane makers.

The company, which based in Batu Berendam, Malacca, has allocated RM300mil for its 2014-2018 capacity expansion programme.

“We are still discussing about the potential sites for our new plant.” group chief operating officer Che Akhma Ismail said.

“We do have some land in Melaka but we may or may not build there,” he told reporters after a signing ceremony with UTC Aerospace System (UTAS) yesterday.

The 15-year supply contract, worth RM218mil a year, is for the production and supply of composite fan cowls, inlet cowl panels and thrust reversers to UTAS.

UTAS first awarded a contract to CTRM in 2003 for the supply of fan cowls. To date, there are a total of seven work packages offloaded at CTRM with a total contract value of about RM4.2bil from UTAS alone.

Currently, CTRM also a total orderbook worth about RM9bil, projects which would be carried out until their expiry at different points in 2030.

“We have plans to expand our capacity until 2018, Che Akhma said.