Georg Fischer Piping opening new Beijing facility
KWD-globalpipe, 2008-03-18, No.274. Trying to keep pace with what it says is strong growth in China, Swiss plastic pipe maker Georg Fischer Piping Systems Ltd. is spending US $14.1 million to set up a new factory in Beijing this year. The Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based company said the Beijing plant will double its capacity in China, and let it better tap the market for polybutylene- and PE-RT plumbing and heating pipe in homes in north China.
It will also free up capacity in its existing Shanghai facility for other markets, including heating systems in other parts of China and end markets such as industrial piping for semiconductor factories and the wastewater treatment plants, said Daniel Fink, president of GF Piping Systems Asia Pacific Ltd. He spoke in an interview.
On its Web site, the company said it has about US$42.2 million in annual sales from the Shanghai operation, with growth over the last decade averaging 57 percent a year. It also said the Beijing plant will alleviate four years of capacity bottlenecks in its China operations.
GF Piping said a 21 percent increase in sales in China, a figure which includes some joint venture pipe making operations, was a key factor in driving growth in the piping systems unit.
The company said that globally, its piping sales slowed down slightly in the second half of the year, particularly from a slowdown in the European real estate market, but Fink said China did not see that slowdown at that time.
Fink said the new Beijing plant will let the company shift more of Shanghai’s resources to the heating and plumbing markets in central and eastern China.
He said GF will also target the semiconductor and wastewater treatment industries in China, and the company said it is also globally seeing more demand for piping for solar cell systems, which it said is a strategic fit with its semiconductor segment.
Fink said the Piping Systems unit has also recently established a small production plant in Malaysia, in part to help it open doors for government contracts. The company also said it has said started to make piping components for gas utilities locally in India.
Source: By Steve Toloken, PLASTICS NEWS STAFF, BEIJING (March 18, 2008)