Germany’s Balda expands Chinese mobile phone capacity
EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS
German plastics components maker Balda AG has announced that its new 147,000-square-foot facility for production of plastics mobile phone assemblies in Beijing will be operational from July of this year.
Chief Financial Officer Rainer Mohr said this week that the Beijing facility will become its global manufacturing center for mobile phone industry customers in China. The new facility brings it total production floor space in Beijing to 333,000 square feet.
In a statement, the company said it will transfer suitable future projects planned for its production facility at Suzhou, close to Shanghai, to the Beijing operation.
“The site, situated near the airport of the Chinese capital, will organize manufacturing processes optimally with the most up-to-date technology,” Mohr said. “As of July of this year, the production plant offers the best prerequisites for highly efficient production methods.”
Last year, Bad Oeynhausen-based Balda posted sales of 139 million euros, down by close to 30 percent from 2008. Profit stood at 14.7 million euros for 2009 compared to 31.4 million euros in 2008.
Despite declines in 2009, the mobile phone sector remains an important element in Balda’s business plans.
In March, Mohr said he expected Balda to achieve double digit growth in the mobile phone sector during 2010, although he predicted this would be accompanied by “highly intensive price competition among our customers … which will increase the pressure on the margins.”
The company said its operation in Ipoh, Malaysia, no longer manufactures for the mobile phone industry following the decision of a key customer last year to move its mobile phone production to Balda’s Beijing operation.
As a result the Malaysian operations saw sales fall from 81.2 million euros in 2008 to 15.8 million euros in 2009, while Chinese operations stayed level at around 84 million euros. Balda’s German business unit, which is focused on medical activities, grew from 31.4 million euros to 34.1 million euros.
Balda is a key supplier of plastics assemblies to the electronics and medical sector with manufacturing in Germany, China, India and Malaysia and a product design and development facility in the United States. The company also holds a 21 percent share in Chinese small-format touch screen maker TPK.
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