By Steve Toloken
STAFF REPORTER / ASIA BUREAU CHIEF
Published: February 19, 2014 2:45 pm ET
Updated: February 19, 2014 2:54 pm ET
Chinese injection press maker Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery Co. Ltd. plans to invest 300 million Chinese yuan ($50 million) in a new factory near its headquarters in Guangdong province and expand into manufacturing automation equipment as well as have more capacity for its molding machines and die casting equipment.
The Shunde-based company said it purchased 90,000 square meters of land for the expansion in late January, in the Shunde Hi-tech Industrial Park.
Yizumi last year said it had a target of doubling overall sales to 2 billion yuan ($327.7 million) by 2015, which included doubling its injection molding machinery sales to 1.2 billion yuan ($163.8 million).
Company executives were not available for an interview but in a statement the company said that adding more capability to make automation equipment would help it compete globally and expand its product line to meet its aggressive sales goal.
"The Yizumi-developed high-tech robots and industrial automatic product lines will work with Yizumi's machines to form injection molding systems and die casting units with higher degree of automation, intelligence and informatization," the company said.
"For the newly-gained land, Yizumi intends to develop HPM series heavy-duty die casting machines, HPM precision injection molding machines and auxiliary automated equipment for molding machinery," it said.
The company did not offer more details on the type of automation equipment it would manufacture.
The new capital investment follows other recent expansions of its product portfolio. Yizumi bought the intellectual property of bankrupt American plastics and die-casting equipment maker HPM in 2011, and opened a technical service center in the United States.
The company also said it opened a technical center in Pune, India, in January, as part of a previously announced plan to expand in that country. The tech center announced largely discussed its die-cast machinery business there.
Last year, company executives said they were considering an injection press assembly facility in India. On its website Yizumi said the company plans to put a facility in India, Brazil or Poland.
The new Shunde factory will add 900 staff when it opens, although the company did not say when that would be. It said the land purchase, for 92 million yuan ($15.1 million), is its largest single land acquisition.
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