Sumitomo (SHI) Demag celebrated the official opening of its new Demag Plastics Machinery facility in Ningbo, China, late last week. Occupying almost 27,000 square meters, the site will accommodate production and logistics facilities with about 13,000 square meters of available area and 1,400 square meters devoted to administration services. Demag Plastics Machinery (Ningbo) Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag (Schwaig, Germany), has been manufacturing injection molding machines for the Asian market in Ningbo since 1998.

Approximately 300 international customers and a cadre of senior staff from parent company Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. (Tokyo) attended the opening ceremony on July 10. When Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Schwaig came to Ningbo in 1998, it was the first injection molding company to install a production site in China, pointed out Chief Sales Officer Gerd Liebig. "With more than 40,000 installed machines, China is and remains the largest international market for injection molding machines. Our investment in a new facility is the cornerstone for further growth. Our objective is the strategic enhancement of our product portfolio and a high level of application-specific support for our customers."

Currently, the Ningbo site is producing Systec C hydraulic injection molding machines with clamping forces from 500 to 10,000 kN. Automation solutions and turnkey systems are engineered in collaboration with partners that include Sepro, MAI or Kebo.

For future growth, Demag Plastics Machinery (Ningbo) CEO Stephan Greif said that he would continue to rely on his experienced team members. "About 50 % of our staff members have been with us for more than 10 years. Over time, our team has developed a strong bond. When we joined forces with the Ningbo team 17 years ago, we introduced German corporate culture and entrepreneurial spirit to the company, and today we are still benefitting from the valuable combination of these assets with traditional Chinese values such as diligence, loyalty and open-mindedness. This is the bedrock of our success".

Sumitomo Heavy Industries and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag operates four facilities in Japan, Germany and China with more than 3,000 employees. The product portfolio includes all-electric, hydraulic and hybrid injection molding machines with clamping forces between 180 and 20,000 kN.

At Sumitomo's headquarters in Chiba, Japan, the company manufactures machines with clamping forces in the small to medium range. Demag's German facilities in Schwaig and Wiehe produce the Systec Servo range as well as the El-Exis SP and Systec SP range of high-speed, high-performance machines. The all-electric IntElect range for international customers is also produced in Germany.