"China and Germany have benefited from thousands of German manufacturing bases and companies in China, and we will take our closer cooperation as a propeller for China's economic development in the future," said visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday.

 

She was speaking at the opening ceremony of Siemens Numerical Control Phase III Building and the 10th anniversary celebration in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province.

 

An outstanding representative of German companies in China, Siemens traces its business history here back to about 80 years ago and is now one of the strongest multinationals in China.

 

Siemens Numerical Control (SNC) Ltd (Nanjing), jointly founded by Siemens Automation and Drives Group and China North Industries in 1996, has grown rapidly in the past years, reaching a sales volume of over 500 million yuan in the last fiscal year.

 

It is now one of the largest Siemens manufacturing bases in the field of industrial automation outside Europe.

 

With an investment of over 328 million yuan, Phase III Building extended its production space from 8,200 sq m to 20,810 sq m and tripled its production capacity.

 

"We are more than willing to expand cooperation with China in the future to meet the demand of the world market," said Peter Herweck, executive vice-president of Siemens Ltd, China Automation & Drives Group.

 

He added that half of SNC's new products will be supplied to the Chinese market and the other half to the rest of the world.

 

"We have also invested heavily in research and development to make our products more competitive," said Manfred Kirchberger, general manager of SNC.

 

In the next three years, SNC will double the number of its researchers and launch a machine tool testing center and a technology center to strengthen its competitive edge, Kirchberger said.

 

(China Daily August 30, 2007)