Nypro Inc. is working through plans for another plant in China, near Shanghai. The company already has plants in Tianjin and Shenzhen, China, that are booming — largely the result of work for manufacturers of cellular phones, said Randy Barko, vice president of sales and marketing for the Clinton, Mass.-based company. Barko said the company may know more about its plans in China by the second half of this year.
Nine Nypro plants are participating in the cellular telecommunications boom. In addition, two tooling sites in Asia are experiencing major growth: "Hong Kong is bursting at the seams, [and] Singapore is booming," he said.
"We see the cell-phone business as a big part of our future growth," Barko said. "Cell phones accounted for about 10 percent of 1999 sales and may reach 15 percent of 2000 sales. Five years ago, it was 1 or 2 percent."
Nypro's worldwide 1999 sales were about $500 million.
One-half of the molding at Nypro's Tianjin and Shenzhen plants relates to cell phones, often involving multiple robotic lines, Barko said.
Nypro supplies nine cell-phone companies, including industry leaders Nokia Oyj, Motorola Inc. and Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson.
"We are doing lens in-mold decorating and using our clean room know-how from the medical market," he said.
Nypro does other cell-phone work in Asheville, N.C.; Chula Vista, Calif.; Albany, Ga.; Gurnee, Ill.; Bray, Ireland; Wrexham, Wales; and Singapore.
In other corporate developments, Nypro will begin leasing a recently constructed facility in Monterrey, Mexico, in July. The 33,000-square-foot site, Nypro's 25th, will have eight to 10 injection molding presses, but can accommodate 24.