Fuchs Plans Bigger China Plant

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Fuchs Plans Bigger China Plant

Fuchs Petrolub is building a lubricants blending plant in Suzhou, Chinas Wujiang district to replace its existing, smaller plant in Shanghai. Expected to open in 2018, the new facility offers several benefits including favorable logistics and proximity to customers, the company said.

The design capacity of the Wujiang plants first phase is 80,000 metric tons per year based on a single-shift operating schedule and will have room for expansion, a spokeswoman for the German independent lubricant supplier told Lube Report Asia.

Our existing Shanghai plant has a capacity of 50,000 metric tons per year, she said. We plan to ramp up our new Wujiang plant in the second half of 2018. After completion, we will close the plant in Shanghai and relocate our activities to Wujiang.

The Wujiang plant will have a product portfolio similar to the Shanghai locations, she said, which includes automotive oils, industrial oils, metalworking fluids, rolling oils and anticorrosion products.

The site is in the Wujiang Economic Development Zone of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, in eastern China. Fuchs chose the zone because it offered several advantages:

  • location in the core of the Yangtze River Delta, which is considered Chinas most dynamic economic area;
  • favorable logistics, as it is connected to more than 10 highways, is a one-hour drive from the existing Shanghai plant, and is just 54 kilometers from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport;
  • a mature industrial zone and home base for other multinational companies, which ensures high proximity to customers.

According to its annual report, Fuchs companies in China accounted for 297.1 million (U.S. $338 million) in sales revenues in 2015, up almost 17 percent from 254.2 million for 2014.

In 2014, Fuchs built a new facility in Yingkou, Liaoning province, to produce automotive lubricants along with specialized lubes for a variety of sectors including steel, agriculture and mining.

Image: Google Maps

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