Hamburg: China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), Wärtsilä and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) are forming a 50:27:23 joint venture to produce large low-speed marine diesel engines in Qingdao, China, the three companies announced today at a joint press conference held at the SMM shipbuilding fair in Germany.
Subject to official approval expected next month, the new company will be called QMD (Qingdao Qiyao Wärtsilä MHI Linshan Marine Diesel Co) and will be dedicated to the R&D testing, prototype manufacture, production and sale of engines of 500mm cylinder bore and larger. First engines are expected to be delivered at the end of 2008 with an initial capacity to build engines of about 880 MW/year (1.2m bhp/year), a level due in course to be tripled.
QMD is intended primarily to help CSIC meet its own requirement for engines but would later also cater to the world market, said Xu Ziiqui, president of CSOC, CSIC's arm for overseas contracts.
Wärtsilä president & ceo Ole Johansson referred to China's growing share of the world shipbuilding market and said 'we find it natural in today's market to build partnerships ... in the way we have done in Japan.' Wärtsilä already enjoys a strategic alliance with MHI on two-stroke engines, and previously set up a jv factory with Shanghai Marine Diesel Engine Research Institute for the manufacture of four-stroke marine diesel generating sets.
Hiroo Uchimura, gm of MHI's Industrial Energy Power System Department, pointed out that MHI already has 18 companies and three offices in China and was 'very happy we can expand these activities with the new alliance.' [27/9/06]
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