Expansion of the site to more than 16,000 square meters

At its site in Tian­jin, Chi­na, Flen­der offi­cial­ly start­ed work on the expan­sion of pro­duc­tion capac­i­ties for the busi­ness with dri­ve sys­tems for wind ener­gy with a cer­e­mo­ni­al lay­ing of the foun­da­tion stone. Flen­der is invest­ing more than 16,000 square meters in a new pro­duc­tion hall as well as admin­is­tra­tion and sup­ply build­ings for the wind busi­ness under the Win­er­gy brand. With this invest­ment, Flen­der is address­ing the future demand for mechan­i­cal and elec­tri­cal dri­ve com­po­nents for wind tur­bines both in the Chi­nese mar­ket and worldwide.

The new pro­duc­tion build­ing will be designed for the assem­bly of ful­ly inte­grat­ed dri­v­e­lines and the medi­um-speed Win­er­gy Hybrid­Drive, which com­bines gear­box and gen­er­a­tor into one dri­ve unit. This also includes an expan­sion of the test bench capac­i­ties for so-called back-to-back tests of the entire pow­er­train. After com­ple­tion of the con­struc­tion work in Novem­ber 2022, more than 1,000 Hybrid­Drive units will leave the Tian­jin plant each year, which will then be one of the world’s largest and most mod­ern plants for medi­um-speed dri­ve sys­tems in the wind industry.

“I am pleased that with this invest­ment we are 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 the ener­gy sup­ply even more effi­cient and sus­tain­able in the future. 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.”

- Andreas Evertz, CEO

For Man­ag­ing Direc­tor Chi­na Dr. Jian Hui Gou, the expan­sion is also an impor­tant step in local­iz­ing the prod­uct port­fo­lio for the wind indus­try: “The Tian­jin site is an impor­tant part in Flen­der’s glob­al pro­duc­tion set­up. 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 domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al cus­tomers in the future. This is an impor­tant step for the devel­op­ment of renew­able ener­gy both in Chi­na and glob­al­ly. We are also mak­ing a major con­tri­bu­tion to the eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment and employ­ment sit­u­a­tion in the Tian­jin region.”

The expan­sion of pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty is part of strate­gic local­iza­tion plans for the Chi­nese mar­ket, which 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*.

The com­pa­ny pro­duces gear­box­es and gen­er­a­tors for the wind indus­try in a pow­er range of three to ten megawatts and an annu­al pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty of over ten gigawatts. In addi­tion to the wind indus­try, 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.