Open House Shows the Best of Two Worlds

28 May 2008 • by Natalie Aster

MUNICH -- China is far more than an immensely successfully export giant. Above all, it is a country which is attracting substantial investment from foreign high-tech companies. The success story of KraussMaffei Extrusion Technology (KMET), a company in the KraussMaffei Berstorff Group, is a good illustration. Visitors to the KMET Open House 2008 saw for themselves how know-how from Germany plus machines and systems built in China make an outstanding combination.

At KraussMaffei Berstorff, Alois Schmid, head of Extrusion Technology Munich, and Andrew Chan, KMET managing director, were delighted with the extremely positive response to the first KMET Open House. On April 16, 2008, a day before the start of the Chinaplas in Shanghai, KMET welcomed over 400 visitors from China, the Near and Middle East, India and Oceania. They took the short trip to the KMET plant in Haiyan county to find out at firsthand about the company's products and services. The visitors toured the ultra-modern, 12,000 sqm production floors, opened in 2006, where KMET builds pipe and profile extruders and extrusion line components. Two extrusion lines in action were major attractions. One was a complete profile extrusion line headed by a KMD 90-32 /P twin-screw extruder with a KME 30-25 C coextruder, the other was a pipe extrusion line using a KME 90-36 B/R single-screw extruder to produce HDPE pipe up to 630 millimetre diameter.

Focus on the bottom line

Markets in Asia set their own priorities. When it comes to production machinery and systems, the top priorities are very high output, maximum operating time and low initial investment. This adds up to the best possible cost/benefit ratio. Western engineering companies often struggle to get a foothold in Asian markets. One hurdle is the fact that quality, for example made in Germany, comes at a relatively high price, especially because production costs in the West are much higher than in Asia. With its KMET subsidiary, KraussMaffei Berstorff has successfully united the best of both worlds: know-how from Germany - for premium quality - and production capacity in China - for extremely cost-competitive production processes. The KMET plant in Haiyan is building machines that meet the requirements of Asian markets.

Almost 90 employees are committed to promoting customers' interests at the KMET plant, which is strategically located between the industrial centres of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo. In addition, KraussMaffei Berstorff operates sales and service offices in Beijing and Shenzhen.

Source: KraussMaffei