Demag Plastics Machinery (Ningbo), one of four plants owned by Japanese-German plastics machinery manufacturer Sumitomo Demag Plastics Machinery (Schwaig / Germany; www.sumitomo-shi-demag.eu), plans to spend USD 9.4m (about EUR 7m) on widening capacity of its injection moulding machine (IMM) facility at Ningbo / China to 1,000 units per year from 650 machines currently. The tonnage of the company’s range can also be potentially expanded.

The start-up of the extended production, scheduled for 2015, will boost Demag's share of what is now the largest IMM market in the world as well as increase exports, said CEO Stephan Greif. The site’s production at currently focuses exclusively on the “Systec” series of hydraulic machines with clamping forces of 50-1,000 t, but the expansion “opens up the possibility” of making other types of machinery in the company’s portfolio, Greif said.

Demag now exports around 25% of its Ningbo production, compared with only 10% in 2010, mainly to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Brazil. Greif said the company eventually aims to export about a third of machinery made at the Chinese plant. The CEO said the facility had record sales and earnings in 2012, despite a 3.5% decline in China’s machinery market altogether.