In November 2011, Bosch Packaging Technology announced that it had plans to expand its packaging machinery manufacturing operations in China. The expansion plans included the construction of a new facility at Chengdu in the province of Sichuan.
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The Chengdu facility will be Bosch’s second plant in China, the first being located in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Bosch established its existing manufacturing facility at Hangzhou in 2001. The facility began operations in June 2003 and was later expanded in 2011.
Construction of the new plant at Chengdu is expected to begin in 2014. The first phase of construction is scheduled to be completed by 2015.
The new plant will produce packaging machinery of medium output capacity for the pharmaceutical, food and confectionary industries. It will be constructed at an estimated cost of ¥150m ($27.26m).
Once operational, the facility will employ about 300 people, bringing the total number of people employed by Bosch in China to 700.
Chengdu plant design and proximity to suppliers
The Chengdu facility will be built on a 66,000m² site, which is twice the size of the existing Hangzhou facility. It will have a total floor space of 13,500m² and 7,200m² of production space.
Chengdu was chosen as the location of the plant as the site of the facility is surrounded by a large number of suppliers. A number of good technical colleges and universities are also located near the site which will help in obtaining well qualified staff for the facility.
Products manufactured at Bosch’s Chinese facility
Bosch’s existing Hangzhou facility offers packaging machinery for solid and liquid pharmaceuticals, food and non-food packing machines and confectionary forming lines. The Chengdu facility will also produce the same products.
The solid pharmaceutical machines offered by Bosch in China include the GKF 700 and GKF 701 standard hard gelatin capsules filling / closing machines and the GKF 2000 capsule filling / closing machine.
The GFK 700 and 701 machines are used for packaging of powders, pellets and tablets. The machines are user-friendly and meet the highest cGMP requirements. The GKF 2000 can be used for filling capsules. It is simple to use and features short changeover and cleaning time.
Liquid pharmaceutical machines include the FLC and FXS 2020 filling / closing machines. The FLC machine can be used for filling vials and bottles in small volumes, ranging between 0.5ml and 500ml. It features an easy to use control system. The FXS 2020 machine can be used for packaging pre-sterilised and pre-filled syringes.
The food and non-food machines offered by Bosch include the Bosch Pack201 horizontal flow wrapper, the SVE2510 LR high-speed bagger, SVE2510 QR continuous bag from, fill / seal machine and the TERRA 25 Plus machine. Confectionary machines offered include the BSK 0019 Z, BSK 0019 L and BPK 0160 D batch formers, the Miniwrap 1300 horizontal flow packer and the Miniwrap 2000 form fill and seal machine.
Details of China’s packaging machinery market
The Chengdu plant will serve the domestic packaging machine market in China. Demand for regional packaging machinery in China is expected to grow by 15% per annum in future. By 2016, this demand is expected to reach ¥40bn.
Development of e-commerce and expansion distribution network in the new domestic Chinese areas has resulted in greater usage of packaging and growth of associated packaging machinery sales.
Demand for pharmaceutical products has especially been increasing in China. Growth in demand for machinery used to package medical, pharmaceutical and personal care products is therefore expected to rise in the future.
Bosch is planning to cater for this future demand in China with the construction of the new facility. The plant will particularly cater to the Western and middle regions of China.
Bosch has already commenced operations at the Chengdu plant in 2012 through a leased production hall. It expects to generate sales worth about ¥750m ($120.28m) for 2013 from the Chinese market.
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