INA/FAG Bearings (Schaeffler Group, Germany) has completed its first plant expansion program in China, a step in an aggressive six-year plan for manufacturing more bearings and mechanical components there.
The company's Chinese factory, in Taicang Economic Development Area, Jiangsu Province, is now called Plant I. It was opened by INA (China) Co., Ltd. in 1998 and was INA's first bearing manufacturing operation in that country.
Plant I originally covered 8,000 square meters and employed fewer than 50 people. With the expansion complete, it is now 19,000 square meters and will soon employ over 400.
The next plant construction will be alongside Plant I. Local authorities renamed the road running past Plant I and the new plant sites as Schaeffler Road.
The next expansion phase, Plant II, is scheduled for completion by mid-2006. Plant II will be a diversified manufacturing facility, housing production of INA brand bearings, FAG brand bearings, FAG brand wheel-end modules, and LuK brand driveline components.
Estimated to cost over USD $180 million by the time it is online, Plant II will cover almost 161,000 square feet and employ over 1,400 workers. It will be Schaeffler's largest manufacturing facility in the world.
Plans are already underway for a second phase expansion, Plant III, tentatively scheduled for completion by mid-2010. Plant III will push the company's manufacturing floorspace in Taicang close to one million square feet and employment over 4,000.
No fewer than six construction phases are in the timetable for Plant III; their relative importance and completion targets will be determined by the sales and market lessons learned from Plant I and Plant II.
Construction of an advanced Research & Development center is also underway for the Taicang complex; its target products are LuK clutches, wheel hub bearings and electric motor bearings.
INA is also adding a regional headquarters in Shanghai, alongside the new regional headquarters for Schaeffler Asia. The company supplies virtually the entire Chinese automotive industry, with customers from VW to GM, FAW, FAW-Fiat, Brilliance, SAIC, Cheery, and others.
Schaeffler Group's sales in China were $120 million in 2003, out of its total Asian market sales of $900 million. That number is expected to grow rapidly over the next ten years, even as the Asian market sales shift toward favoring China as a manufacturing base and exporter.
Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler attended a ceremony marking the completion of the Plant I expansion, just as she and her son Georg were being listed by Forbes magazine as the 64th wealthiest people on earth, worth approximately $6.1 billion.
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