Manuli opens high-tech hose plant in Suzhou

Milan, Italy - Manuli Rubber Industries has established a modern, high-tech hose plant in Suzhou, China. The company said it has already spent around Euro 20 million on the plant, and expects to spend the same amount again during 2006, bringing the total cost of the project to Euro 40 million. The factory makes flexible hoses for high-pressure hydraulic applications.

Manuli Rubber said it has been operating in China since 1997, but saw the need to build its own, modern factory to serve the Asian and American markets, which today account for approximately 20 percent of MRI's turnover and which are expected to increase rapidly over the coming years. The plant's size and production capacity will double during the first half of 2006, the firm added.

"It is not a question of delocalisation,” said Dardanio Manuli, MRI's president and ceo, "but a strategy designed to increase business in the Asian and American markets, which are still relatively new for MRI but will be increasingly important for the future development of the group.”

"Thanks also to the start-up of the new plant,” Dardanio Manuli concludes, "we expect to close 2005 with a turnover exceeding Euro 240 million against almost 220 achieved in 2004.”

The factory began operations in the middle of 2005 and was officially opened in November 2005. It is located in Suzhou, about 100 km from Shanghai, in China. The deputy mayor of Suzhou, Zhou Wei Qiang and the Italian Consul, Silvia Costantini, attended the formal opening ceremony.