Volvo CE doubles capacity at Shanghai plant

Volvo Construction Equipment’s Shanghai plant has doubled the quantity of excavators it produces per day since 2010. The increase demonstrates Volvo’s commitment to sustainable growth in BRIC markets through strengthening and expanding its production capacity.

The capacity increase was achieved by making efficiencies in production to reduce cycle times, helped by over $30 million of investments made by Volvo in the plant since 2003.

Robert Li, Vice President and General Manager of China Operations at Volvo Construction Equipment is responsible for driving the expansion and says this initial increase is just the first step in a wider growth plan. “Volvo machines are among the leaders in fuel efficiency, quality and productivity in the Chinese market and we are seeing increasing levels of demand for our machines in-line with China’s economic development,” says Mr. Li. “As such, we have plans to increase our production even further by the end of the year. We are extending our facilities and hiring more staff so that we can double the amount of units we are producing per day again by 2012.”

Although the plant will be making more machines, Volvo is firm that this will not affect its core values of quality, safety and environmental care. “All Volvo machines are built with quality, safety and fuel efficiency in mind and we rigorously test each machine in our production to ensure they meet our high standards,” says Mr. Li. “Furthermore each new employee undergoes several days of stringent safety training; so we are producing more while maintaining our standards. I am very proud of our work here.”

The Shanghai plant is Volvo’s largest plant for Volvo excavators in China and second in the global business after Changwon in Korea. Established in 2003, it manufactures 20-29 ton EC200B, EC210B, EC240B and EC290B crawler excavators and EC360B 36 ton crawler excavators.

The facility was visited in May by Volvo Construction Equipment’s new CEO, Pat Olney on his first major visit to China. Mr. Olney confirmed the company’s commitment to the Chinese market at a press conference in Shanghai during that visit.

“Volvo is well positioned, both in China and the rest of Asia, to capitalize on the huge market opportunity and growth potential here,” says Mr. Olney. “We are committed to supporting our capacity, distribution and product offering in China and throughout Asia and we will achieve this by a comprehensive programme of investments in our Asian industrial operations, a strengthening of our dealer network and an expansion of hard and soft products. These products will offer superior safety, quality and environmental care, as well as best-in-class fuel consumption.”