Vibracoustic Europe will be opening its first production facility in China by the year end. Around 200 employees will then be manufacturing air springs for the Chinese commercial vehicle market in a production area covering 4,300 sq. metres in Yantai, a city with six million inhabitants in East China.
The decisive factors in favour of this location included its good connections to customers and suppliers, availability of skilled employees and its convenient position on the Yellow Sea, opposite the Korean coast. A project team is currently preparing to start up production. The capital investment amounts to around 2 million euros.
Before taking this step, the presence of Vibracoustic in the Chinese market was already established in the form of a sales office in Shanghai. “By setting up our own local production facility, we will be able to orient our activities much closer to this important market,” explained Zhichao Wang, Manager of Sales Office China.
Vibracoustic presented its latest developments in the field of air springs for buses and coaches for the third time at Busworld in Shanghai. Among other things, the company is hoping that its presence at China’s largest trade fair would enable it to establish new contacts with potential customers.
As Zhichao Wang explains, “In our capacity as technological leader in the field of air springs for buses and coaches, this trade fair offers us an excellent opportunity to inform new and existing customers about our company’s most recent developments”.
The general economic setting for this year’s trade fair was decidedly favourable as this segment of the market is characterized by an exceptionally high growth rate.