GUANGZHOU, CHINA — German machinery company KraussMaffei Group GmbH began assembling MX-series injection molding machines at its plant in Haiyan, China, in the first quarter of this year, KM's China CEO Harald Schweitzer said in a news conference at the Chinaplas trade show.
"We look forward to further extending our product line with the assembly at our Chinese plant of the popular MX machines, which have been well received by the market," he said.
The factory began in 2005 making extruders, but is undergoing an expansion, he said. In addition to the hydraulic MX machines, which are largely aimed at the automotive sector, the company also is setting up a lab and training center for PET equipment, related to KM's Netstal business.
"Now our factory in Haiyan is really becoming a really good factory which basically serves all the divisions," Schweitzer said. "We have a good manufacturing footprint of KM in China and very positive and looking forward to be more successful in the future," he said.
Schweitzer said 35 Chinese-assembled MX-series machines of 850 tons and up have been sold already this year.
KraussMaffei is optimistic about the prospects for the MX series in China.
"I really think that the demand for automated production systems will strongly rise in China and the main driver for that is the increase in labor costs, said Frank Peters, vice president sales at KraussMaffei.
He added: "The smaller part of the market are the high-quality machines, and then there are a huge amount of machines that are [just] doing the job, but I see that this high-quality segment if it is today 5-10 percent [of the total market, then it] will grow more and more and more."