SKF Building New Bearing Factory in China

SKF AB (Sweden) announced today it will be building a new bearing factory in Dalian province, northeast China. In addition, it will invest and expand capacity at two other plants near Shanghai. SKF (Dalian) Bearings and Precision Technologies Co., Ltd., has been established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SKF AB, and will build the new plant in the Dalian Economic & Technological Development Area. The new factory will manufacture and recondition large size bearings of different types. It will serve market segments in metalworking, power generation, mining, and construction. Initially employing approximately 85 workers, the first phase of the Dalian factory is scheduled to come online in 2006. The remainder of the facility will be built and brought online in stages, at full capacity employing approximately 240 people. Along with the Dalian plant announcement, SKF said it has launched a program to increase wheel hub bearing production at its automotive bearing factory in Shanghai, a 70%-owned joint venture. To accommodate the expansion, manufacturing will be moved to a new, larger site in Shanghai. Finally, its other Shanghai facility, 60%-owned, SKF Shanghai Bearings Co., Ltd., manufactures deep groove ball bearings for electric motors and household appliances. Capacity there will be increased with the addition of two new production lines. SKF said the expansion is necessary to meet increased demand from both local markets and other Asian markets. This plant was announced in 2003 article: SKF opens bearing factory in China SKF did not disclose the Dalian plant investment or cost of the additional investments in Shanghai, only that the total over the near-term for the three projects is expected to be in the range of SEK 500 million (USD $70 million). President and CEO Tom Johnstone said, "We have during the last years been growing with good double digit figures in China. To be able to continue to grow with good speed and also to improve our market position in China we need to strengthen our manufacturing capacity in the country. Long term, we also see China as an excellent base for exporting both components and products to the rest of the world."