News
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Start of production in Wuhan
Tailored Blanks from the house of ThyssenKrupp is at the centre of a success story that is spreading across the world. In Wuhan, China, for example, production of laser-welded sheet metal for the local automobile industry began in October 2002. The operating company is in fact ThyssenKrupp Zhong-Ren Tailored Blanks Ltd – the result of a joint venture between the Wuhan Zhong-Ren Rui Zhong Auto Component Industry Ltd. and ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks GmbH.
At the end of October last year the company, of which ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks holds 51%, celebrated the inauguration of the new factory hall and the commissioning of a linear laser-welding facility in Wuhan’s East Lake Development zone. The gigantic hall will be partly used by the joint venture partner to manufacture mouldings for the automobile industry.
Specialists intensively trained in Germany and under the leadership of Managing Director Oliver Bürgstein are currently producing samples for the Chinese automobile industry. Serial production will begin no later than the summer of this year. From 2004 the company plans to obtain its input stock, from which the tailored blanks are made, from Tagal – another joint venture from the house of ThyssenKrupp Stahl responsible for erecting a state-of-the-art hot-dip coating facility in Dalien, China. The customised prefabricated automobile parts are finally to be found in many makes of automobile well-known in Europe and intended for the booming Chinese market, above all VW/Audi, Ford, Citroen and General Motors.