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You are here: Home > Marine > Marine news > 2005 > New factory serves world's largest shipbuilding market
Rolls-Royce has opened a new factory in Shanghai, China, to serve the world's largest commercial shipbuilding market.
Together with an existing facility in Korea, the factory forms a new production hub for north-east Asia enabling the company to supply shipyards with marine equipment at the point of manufacture - and open up new markets in the process.
The Asian shipbuilding market is currently worth £19 billion annually and accounts for around 80 per cent of all global construction. In 2004 new orders and deliveries reached record levels.
Marine President Saul Lanyado, who officially opened the site on 2 November, said: “This is a very exciting development for us and it opens up real opportunities to expand our business in Asia. This new factory will enable us to increase our market share and increase our volume of production, serving shipyards in China and Asia faster and more competitively than before.
“The factory provides a long-term platform for expanding our operations here, and with our factory in Korea, it will act as a hub for the Asian marketplace”.
Deputy General Secretary Chen Changyu, of the China Association of National Shipbuilding Industry, said: “We are very pleased to see Rolls-Royce, a world leading company, establishing this new facility in Shanghai, it is a further demonstration of the company's strong presence in China, and it will further strengthen cooperation with Chinese industry."
Employing 75 people, and set to employ up to 150 by the middle of next year, the 9,000 square metre facility is the company's largest investment in China to date. The equipment produced or assembled there includes tunnel thrusters, rudders, control and steering systems and deck machinery.
Rolls-Royce is no stranger to doing business in China. The company has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian and Hong Kong and supplies aero engines to ten Chinese airlines. The company was also recently awarded a contract to provide pipeline compression equipment for the West East China Gas Pipeline Project.
1. The Marine business of Rolls-Royce employs 7,000 people in 34 countries with the main manufacturing centres being in the UK, the Nordic countries, the United States and increasingly Asia.
2. All staff at the Shanghai factory have been trained to operate to the same standards as those of any Rolls-Royce facility anywhere else in the world.
3. Chinese sub-contractors will manufacture larger, mechanical components with the company's factories in Europe providing higher-tech equipment where necessary. Final test and assembly will take place in Shanghai.
Captions for the downloadable images
1. Saul Lanyado, President of the Marine business of Rolls-Royce, right, with George Lowe, Executive Vice-President - Marine, outside the new Shanghai facility
2. Ribbon cutting at the new Rolls-Royce Marine facility in Shanghai
3. Saul Lanyado, President of the Marine business of Rolls-Royce at the official opening of its new Shanghai facility.
Images © Rolls-Royce plc/Andrew Wang/Getty Images 2005
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Craig Taylor
Senior Business Partner – Corporate Communications
