By Liz White, ERJ staff
Dusseldorf, Germany Italian automotive part supplier Argomm SpA is assessing setting up a facility in China, possibly via a joint venture with a local company, according to Andrea Gualini, key account manager with the Villongo, Bergamo, based operation.
Speaking in an interview at the K2004 exhibition in Dusseldorf, Gualini explained that Argomm's key customers in the automotive sector have set up in China and are asking for local supply.
The specialist in automotive gaskets and rubber to plastics bonding is keen to have a Chinese facility operating next year, he added.
Argomm is not focussing particularly on using China as a low cost manufacturing region, Gualini added,since the firm, which uses speciality elastomers such as HNBR and fluoroelastomers, finds materials costs can be up to 50 percent of its part costs.
