Linde Hydraulics Opens a New Factory in China

Aschaffenburg, Germany / Weifang, China, June 1, 2015 – Linde Hydraulics GmbH and Co. KG is continuing its internationally-oriented strategy. On May 29, 2015, the management of Linde Hydraulics and top-level shareholders’ representatives opened a new plant in Weifang, a city on the east coast of China with a population of nine million inhabitants.

After the branch in Xiamen, this is the first Linde Hydraulics plant with extensive production in Asia. Parallel to the expansion of production and installation, a sales and service center was established and opened at the beginning of the year. Over the mid- to long-term, sales in Asia should exceed the 100 million euro mark.

Dr. Jörg Ulrich, CEO of Linde Hydraulics, said on the occasion of the opening ceremonies, “By making this investment we are emphasizing the importance of the Asian market for our international growth strategy. China is still the largest market in the world for mobile machinery and offers Linde Hydraulics a wealth of opportunities which we will use effectively. We are also catering to the needs of our customers who are represented with plants in China. With its additional capacity and talent, this new plant will further accelerate the successful progress of Linde Hydraulics in China.”

Weifang will be an important basis for recruiting new talent on the Asian market. Dr. Ulrich added that, in this context, all functions will be considered, from production and engineering through to purchasing, sales, administration and service. In addition, the new plant will help to considerably reduce reaction-times and time-to-market for special customer requirements.

Linde Hydraulics also got off to any early start by ensuring high international standards in quality, technology and environmental matters in its new plant in China. The workflow planning was carried out by experienced project teams and experts from Aschaffenburg, Germany. The employees at the new plant were specially trained for their new tasks for over one and a half years at the Linde Hydraulics location in Xiamen; further training units were carried out at both the new location in Weifang and in Aschaffenburg. The service, sales and application engineers were also trained by the Linde Hydraulics Training Center in Aschaffenburg.

Sun Shaojun, Executive President of Weichai Power said, “Today’s production start-up marks the beginning of a new journey for the development of Linde Hydraulics’ business in China. We are very pleased to be able to actively assist Linde Hydraulics in its further steps in the Asian market. I am sure that our joint commitment will enable Linde Hydraulics to fully meet its objectives.”

The new plant will be operated by Linde Hydraulics (China) Co., Ltd, which was formed in a joint venture between Linde Hydraulics GmbH and Co. KG (51%) and Wechai Power Co., Ltd (49%) in March 2015.