Press maker Cosmos opens new China factory

By Steve Toloken, Crain staff (PN)

Guangzhou, China -- China's Cosmos Machinery Ltd., one of the country's largest makers of injection moulding machines, opened a new factory in South China May 16 that it said will increase its capacity there by 30 percent.

The 50,000 square meter facility, in Dongguan, Guangdong province, comes online as company officials said at the factory's opening ceremony that they will finish construction next month on another new facility, this one in the East China city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, and plan to double production capacity there next year.

The publicly-traded company has a target of increasing production and sales 50 percent by 2013, compared with 2010 figures, company officials said in a statement.

Cosmos had 2010 sales of HK$2.42 billion (US$311 million), with its machinery unit reporting sales of HK$1.04 billion (US$133 million), the firm told the Hong Kong stock exchange in a March financial report.

The Hong Kong-based company said at the opening ceremony for the Dongguan plant that it has sold 3,000 of its energy saving SE models for plastics injection moulding since the commercial launch of that technology in 2009, and by the end of 2010 the SE technology had become 70 percent of its injection press sales.

The firm said it plans to extend that servo-driven power system to its other machines, including rubber injection, hydraulic presses and CNC machines, as both energy and raw material costs become increasingly important challenges for Chinese manufacturers, said Wilson Wong, general manager of Cosmos's Welltec subsidiary.

China could face increasing power shortages and stoppages, said Simon Ho, director of marketing and international trade at Cosmos.

Wong and Ho were interviewed at Chinaplas, held May 17-20 in Guangzhou.

The firm also introduced an infrared heater system as an energy savings tool, and claims to be the first Chinese press maker to develop an iPad application for remote monitoring and control of its injection press systems. The firm also has iPhone and computer-based apps.

Rising labor costs in China are boosting interest in those software control systems among Chinese factories, but Ho said it can be a challenge getting the value recognised financially.

“In China everyone thinks software is free so it takes some education,” he said.

The company also said it plans to ramp up production at its new India joint venture facility making plastic moulding machines, from its pace of about 100 machines a year now to between 350 and 480 machines in three years.

Cosmos last year formed the joint venture in Ahmedabad with local press maker Jishu-Hozen Machines Pvt. Ltd (India). It plans to add capability to manufacture presses up to 700 metric tons clamping force by mid-summer, said H.R. Nagadia, director of marketing for the joint venture.

From Plastics News (A Crain publication)