Wartsila continues China expansion

“From 35 years of success and growth in China we have a long history and presence in China and we are still expanding on that,” Hans Laheij, area sales director for Wartsila Ship Power, told a media briefing at Marintec China 2013 on Monday.

Laheij noted the shift the company was seeing by Chinese yards to building more high value vessels in sectors such offshore marine. “More complex vessels are being manufactured in China,” he said.

Such projects require greater on the ground support and he said: “We have at this about 50 people in project management, engineering and application support here in China to be close to the customers and where the vessels are built.”

Wartsila is also building on its physical presence in China which now consists of two fully owned factories, five joint ventures, eight licenses and eight service centres. “This local presence is very important,” he said.

In June 2011 the company added controllable pitch propeller manufacture to its 55/45% joint venture between Wartsila and CSSC. “We build now the majority of propellers here in China,” Laheij said.

Next year a new site in Zhuhai will start operations in where the company is going to manufacture a range of four-stroke engines with annual capacity of 400 units per year.