Gloucester, Mass.-based extrusion machinery manufacturer Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. announced on the opening day of Chinaplas 2006 that its China-based facility is now a wholly owned entity.
Chairman Harold Wrede said the firm acquired the 40 percent stake that had been held by Hong Kong-based injection molding machinery manufacturer Chen Hsong Holdings Ltd.
The companies started the venture 10 years ago when foreign firms needed a local partner to enter the Chinese market.
Battenfeld bought Chen Hsong's shares in Battenfeld Chen Extrusion Systems Ltd. because Battenfeld's parent, SMS AG, wants subsidiaries to be wholly owned when possible and because Chen Hsong wants to focus on making presses.
Battenfeld Chen has been renamed Battenfeld Extrusion Systems Ltd. and will continue supplying customers from its base in Shunde, China.
Wrede further announced that the company supplied a nine-layer extrusion line to DuPont Performance Elastomers, which recently opened a technical center in Zhangjiang, China. DuPont's Shanghai technical center also boasts a three-layer Battenfeld Gloucester extrusion machine.
Wrede called the nine-layer machine ``the centerpiece'' of DuPont's center. It was wholly built in the Shunde facility, and the three-layer machine used a combination of parts made in the U.S. and China.
Battenfeld's strategy is to use ``Western technology, built where appropriate,'' he said.
The company also announced the launch of a small profile extrusion line for the Chinese market. The Shunde facility will build the machines.
Battenfeld Gloucester expects purchases of machinery to pick up this year, now that the government has lifted restrictions on capital spending that caused a sharp decline in machinery imports in 2005.