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[May 2008]
Metso Expanding Production Capacity in China
Metso Corp (Helsinki, Finland) will expand its production capacity and office facilities in Shanghai, China, through an investment of €20 million. The investment supports Metso’s global presence strategy by increasing production resources in Asia’s growing markets.
Metso will establish new facilities for Metso Automation’s valve factory and supply centre, for automation system production and for sales, a project unit and engineering in China. About half of the investment will be allocated to a new office and factory building. The rest will be spent on acquiring machinery and equipment and on building the factory infrastructure.
The building plans will be completed late this year and the actual construction will begin next year. Operations in the new facilities will commence in early 2010. After completion of the facilities, all Metso Automation units in Shanghai will move into the same facilities. The number of employees in the units is estimated to grow by 400 and will rise to about 650 employees in 2011. Production capacity will be quadrupled from 2007 to 2011.
With the investment, Metso is responding to the rapid growth in demand for automation valves and systems, particularly in China’s energy, oil and gas industry. It also enables the development of a global supply chain for valve production.
Metso made its first deliveries to China back in the 1950s. It started its own operations in China through a joint venture in the 1980s. Today, Metso operates in 16 different localities in China, where it has about 2,700 employees. Measured in net sales, China was Metso’s third largest country. The 2007 net sales of its subsidiaries operating in China totalled €197 million and sales to China totalled €543 million. The total value of Metso’s investments in China in 2006-2008 is about €100 million.
Metso is a global engineering and technology corporation with 2007 net sales of over €6 billion. It employs almost 27,000 people.
www.metso.com
ENDS