Strategic Alliance for Asian Injection Molding Machine Market


Corbas/Altdorf – Two of the world’s leading manufacturers of rubber injection molding machines, German manufacturer LWB Steinl GmbH Co. KG, based in Altdorf near Munich, still run by the Steinl family, and the French company REP International based in Corbas near Lyon, have established a joint-venture to handle the exclusive sales, service and manufacturing business of rubber molding machines in China, company “United Rubber Plastic Machinery (Langfang) Ltd.”



LWB’s product portfolio includes the complete range of rubber injection molding machines with 6 - 1200 tons clamping force and 4.5 to 30000 cc injection volume, ranging from vertical C-frame machine specifically for the profile industry, vertical 4-column or frame machines, up to horizontal machines pillar and C- frame clamping unit into frames, C-frame and column construction.



The company REP, founded in 1907, sells world-wide injection molding machines since 1948, ranging from 7 to 2400 tons clamp pressure, and 7 to 50 000 cc injection capacity, with primarily column frame design, for both horizontal and vertical lay-out.



Outside the Chinese market, the companies remain independent. Thus, the two injection molding machine manufacturers are still in direct competition to each other in other regions.



Both, LWB and REP, are present in China since many years, but do barely overlap on the market, giving way to this strategic alliance, where the companies will share their resources and offer competitive prices of their products to the growing Chinese market.



Location of the new plant is Langfang, Hebei Province, southeast of Beijing, where LWB started to manufacture several injection molding machines at a preliminary phase since 2009. The new plant, with a production area of 2,500 m2, is scheduled to be finished by end of 2014. Before all, machines will be manufactured exclusively for the Chinese market.



For the joint company "United Rubber & Plastic Machinery (Langfang) Ltd.", a new machine series, specially tailored to the Chinese market, has been developed. Components from local production are combined with European know-how and thus provide a high standard of quality for the profile industry as well as for technical rubber parts for vertical and horizontal applications. This new machine series will accept existing molds operated on Rep or LWB machines to the limit that competitive pricing to the local market will not allow extended optional or special equipment, such as offered with products made in Europe.



"These days it is more important to make of use of common advantages to increase the level of service to a market, rather than duplicating resources which will dissipate in me-too competition," said Peter Steinl , Managing Director of LWB Steinl . Year after year, new machinery manufacturers in China are founded, which copy the European machinery. During the recent Chinaplas the visitor could see of a number of machines that at first – or sometimes even second glance - look like well-known products. These are the companies to fight against: "but there are arguments for the original technology – which the Chinese manufacturers recognize now, too" says Peter Steinl.



United Rubber & Plastic Machinery ( Langfang ) Ltd. is a fully independent company , which will operate under Chinese Management, namely Mr. Wang Xiao Bo , former General Manager of Rep Beijing.



"The Chinese market is a big challenge with a big potential," says Bruno Tabar, President of REP, "we therefore rely on synergies with strong partners to generate further growth faster. Customer will take more advantage from a strong supplier offering a wide range of product and services". Another benefit of this co-operation both companies see, beside lower production costs is a strong unified sales and service network throughout China.



REP international:

Sylvie Maréchal

E-Mail: smarechal@repinjection.com

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