China's Anhui Zhongding Holding (Group) Co. Ltd. plans to invest $6.9 million in a 30,000-square-foot technology center in Northville Township, located about 10 miles north of Ann Arbor, Mich.
The new center, which will be operated by its North American subsidiary Zhongding U.S.A. Inc., will include a laboratory and testing component, along with sales, marketing and engineering functions. The company makes both rubber and plastic functional auto parts, and has injection molding and blow molding.
Zhongding already operates a plant in Cadillac, Mich. In 2016, the state of Michigan awarded Zhongding USA Cadillac Inc., doing business as Michigan Rubber Products Inc., a $600,000 performance-based grant to create 125 jobs in an expansion. So far, it has created 49 new jobs and is on pace to meet its jobs creation criteria, the MEDC said in the memo.
Its current North American Technical Center currently is in Monroe, Mich. Zhongding operates other subsidiaries in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri.
The new project, which is expected to create 80 new jobs, is supported by a $650,000 performance-based grant from the state of Michigan and a 50 percent reduction in property taxes in the form of a tax abatement from the township, according to a Michigan Economic Development Corp. memo on the project.