Automotive supplier ContiTech (Hanover / Germany; www.contitech.de) is to invest over EUR 20m in the first phase of an automotive hose production site in Qingdao / China. The company will establish a greenfield facility with an initial floor space of around 15,000 m² in the Sino-German Eco Park of Qingdao West Coast New Area.

Hans-Jürgen Duensing, member of the executive board of parent company Continental (Hanover / Germany; www.conti-online.com) and ContiTech CEO, said: “We want to meet our customers’ needs and requirements most effectively. That’s why we consequently follow our strategic approach to further localise our global operations. With that signature, we commit to expanding production capacity in the growing market China as well as in the Asian Pacific region, in response to the increasing demand for hoses and hose lines.”

Over the next few years, existing production of heating and cooling hose lines in China will be moved to the new location, which is located only a few kilometres from ContiTech's current site, and has a projected annual output of about 15m low pressure pipes in its first full capacity phase.

ContiTech presently produces and sells rubber hoses and hose assemblies for the automotive industry with more than 500 employees in downtown Qingdao, mainly for domestic car manufacturers in China and in the Asia Pacific region. The company has recently been raising its profile in China and last year started up a 10,000 t/y synthetic rubber blends plant in Changshu – see Plasteurope.com of 13.07.2015.