German company Freudenberg & Co, the world's leading seal and vibration control equipment supplier, has said it would double its local employment and sales volume in China over the next four years.

The expansion will introduce more of its products to the country like lubricants and may include acquisitions, though company officials said they have no target in sight yet.

The family-run company operates 11 plants in six cities, including Shanghai, Suzhou and Dalian. It employs 9,000 people in China and boasts sales of 500 million euros (US$639 million) a year.

"The growth annual rate for the next four years will be 20 to 25 percent for us and we will need a lot of engineers and sales people to join us," said Thomas Seidel, chief representative of Freudenberg for China, Japan and South-East Asia. He said the company was looking at opportunities to expand to more regions of China, such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far northwestern China.

Hanno Wentzler, president of Freudenberg's chemical division, has been assigned the task to oversee the training program in China.

The company will start production of specialty chemicals in China next year at a plant that is still under construction in Shanghai's suburban Qingpu District.

China's growing infrastructure creates a huge demand for construction and engineering equipment but the lack of high quality general machinery parts like seals, gears and bearings has become a bottleneck for its machinery industry, leaving a big opportunity for foreign companies.

Source:佚名