Expansion into China

The purpose-built, state-of-the-art 9,000m² production facility will start to manufacture multimedia coolers for mobile machines and oil/air coolers for stationary hydraulics from the start of next year. Prototypes of these products rolled off the production line in October.  

The new plant, which is located around 100km southwest of Shanghai, will process around 200t of aluminium each month in the production of high-quality cooler systems for a range of applications in the construction and agricultural sectors. 

KTR, based in Sheffield, has been manufacturing power transmission products for a wide range of energy sector applications, including generator sets, pumps, and compressors, for more than 50 years. The firm is part of global parent company KTR Systems GmbH, which is headquartered in Germany.

Nicola Warning, KTR’s CEO, said: “Thanks to the close cooperation of design engineers and developers at KTR’s headquarters and the manufacturing specialists in Jiaxing, we will be in a position to produce even small batches via highly-automated processes and consequently at a consistently high-quality level in this plant. The engineering of standard and special high-performance cooler solutions will continue to take place in Rheine, with manufacturing taking place exclusively in Jiaxing.” 

The opening of the new cooler plant follows the launch of KTR’s couplings and brakes production facility, also in Jiaxing, in 2016. The 30,000m² manufacturing space comprises production, assembly, logistics and R+D facilities.

Nicola Warning added: “While Germany remains the core site for design, manufacture and supply to European industry, we have a strategy in place to establish Jiaxing as a location for production and logistics to supply the whole of East and South-East Asia with tailor-made drive solutions from that site.”