Dürr invests in business expansion in China and South East Asia. In Shanghai, the Group is currently establishing a modern manufacturing and office complex in which all activities of the mechanical engineering division Measuring and Process Systems are gradually to be consolidated under a single roof. The new location in the district of Baoshan is to be extended in stages for up to 1,000 employees.
Measuring and Process Systems includes balancing and cleaning technology, filling technology and business involving testing and assembly products. China has meanwhile become the biggest single market for this division. Since 2005, its China sales revenues have increased eight-fold, to reach € 130 million, or roughly 20% of total sales revenues of Measuring and Process Systems. In the period from 2005 to 2012, the workforce grew from 136 to 540 employees. The Dürr Group as a whole generates roughly € 700 million in sales revenues in China, with over 1,600 employees.
“Good growth prospects continue to exist in future for Measuring and Process Systems. In the medium term, sales revenues from local production and the number of employees in China are expected to double,” says Ralf W. Dieter, CEO of Dürr AG. In addition to the China business, a contribution to growth is also to be generated by the expansion of business operations in South East Asia, which will be spearheaded from Shanghai. The focus here will be on emerging market countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Dr Ralf-Michael Fuchs, Head of the Measuring and Process Systems division: “Our products are used in the manufacture of automobiles, household appliances, aircraft engines as well as in power generation, for instance. These industry segments benefit directly from the growing purchasing power and rising infrastructure investments in the Asia-Pacific region.” Experts expect automobile production to grow by roughly 10% in each of China and South East Asia within the next years. In the household appliances segment, in 2015 just under half of global demand is expected to be accounted for by the Asian/Pacific region.
In the current year, Measuring and Process Systems has sold roughly 1,200 machinery units in China. The division, which has had a presence in that country since 1985, currently maintains three locations in Shanghai. Thanks to operations being consolidated in Baoshan, Dürr anticipates substantial efficiency gains in manufacturing along with synergies in engineering, distribution and other sectors. Furthermore, local product development is to be extended in order to provide machinery especially designed for China and South East Asia on a larger scale than in the past.
The move to the new location is scheduled to start in mid-2013; by 2015, the entire workforce will be located in Baoshan. The production area will then amount to 22,000 square metres, with a further 7,400 square metres being planned and provided for office space. In March of this year, Dürr already commissioned a new production facility for its plant engineering business in Shanghai Qingpu. Once the mechanical engineering location in Shanghai Baoshan has been completed, Dürr will have a total floor space of over 63,000 square metres in this eastern Chinese metropolis, or almost the same area as at its headquarters in Bietigheim-Bissingen.
