Flender Expands its Footprint in Tianjin, China
Flender Tianjin management team with the guests of honor at the groundbreaking ceremony on September 6. (Image source: Flender GmbH)
On more than 16,000 square meters, Flender is investing in a new production hall as well as administration and supply buildings for its wind energy business under the Winergy brand. With this investment, Flender addresses the future demand for mechanical and electrical drive components for wind turbines both in the Chinese market and globally.
The new production facility is designed for the assembly of fully integrated drive trains and the medium-speed Winergy HybridDrive, which combines gear unit and generator into one drive unit. This also includes an expansion of test bench capacities for back-to-back testing of the entire drive train. After completion of the new building in November 2022, more than 1,000 HybridDrive units will leave the Flender plant in Tianjin each year, which makes it one of the world's largest and most modern plants for medium-speed drive systems in the wind industry.
"I am pleased that this investment is making a major contribution to the global expansion of wind energy and to the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. Technical innovations such as the HybridDrive will help us to make future energy supply even more efficient and sustainable. With the expansion of our site in Tianjin, we are setting the course to serve the future demand for drive systems for the global market," said Flender Group CEO Andreas Evertz.
Flender China Chairman Dr. Jian Hui Gou also considers the expansion an important step in localizing the product portfolio for the wind industry: "The Tianjin site is an important part of Flender's global production footprint. With the expansion of our production capacities, we will be in an even better position to supply advanced drive systems for wind turbines to our local and international customers. This is an important step for the development of renewable energies both in China and globally. We are also contributing significantly to economic and social development and the employment situation in the Tianjin region."
The expansion of production capacities is part of Flender's strategic localization plans for the Chinese market that also include technology, product portfolio, supply chain and recruiting. The Tianjin site was founded by Flender in 1996 and has become the technology and production hub for the Asia-Pacific region with 260,000 square meters of space and more than 2,000 employees. In Tianjin, Flender produces gearboxes and generators for the wind industry in a power range from three to ten megawatts and an annual production capacity of more than ten gigawatts. In addition to the wind business, the product portfolio includes other key industries such as cement, raw materials processing, marine and cranes. Representatives of the German embassy in China, the German and European chambers of commerce in China as well as from local politics, administration and business associations attended the groundbreaking ceremony as guests of honor.
Source: Flender International GmbH
