Guangzhou, China — Blown film machinery maker Jinming Machinery (Guangdong) Co. Ltd. plans to expand via acquisition, CEO Mars Ma said in an interview at Chinaplas. (Hall 8.1, Booth A21).
As part of its push into Industry 4.0, the Shantou, China-based company also wants to acquire an automation provider, Ma said.
"Our production capacity is good, but I want to improve technology, salesforce and overseas service," Ma said.
Ma declined to announced specific targets, citing governance regulations for publicly traded companies.
Last year the company posted sales of 355 million yuan ($51.6 million). Thirty percent of sales were exports. While stateside sales have flagged in recent years, the company has recently garnered orders from Africa and Latin America.
Despite those healthy export figures, Ma is keen to enlarge its footprint abroad. "We need to break through the glass ceiling of the international market," he said. Acquiring a local manufacturer is easier than starting up a new subsidiary, he added.
Jinming's ace in the hole is its fully operational technology center in Shantou — Ma called it the only one of its kind for the Asia-Pacific blown film sector. Besides producing commercial-grade film, the center serves as a test base for potential customers and for materials makers such as BASF, ExxonMobil, Mitsubishi and DuPont, Ma said.
Jinming is following a familiar path of Chinese plastics machinery makers by contracting with experienced R&D engineers in Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United States, Ma said.
Jinming went public in 2011 and is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange. Jinming was founded by Ma's father 30 years ago. This is the company's 21st year at Chinaplas.
Jinming's lineup includes multi-layer coextrusion machines that make geomembrane for construction projects or agricultural film up to 5.5 meters wide. The company also makes coextrusion dual- and multi-bubble machines and coextrusion water-quench machines for three, five and or seven layers. Other machines produce cast film and biaxially oriented film. Under the FEEC brand, Jinming makes food and industrial packaging machinery.