Heidelberg and Masterwork are strengthening their partnership with an agreement on a new joint venture that will take over production of some parts that have previously been made in Heidelberg’s Shanghai plant.
The new joint venture will be based in a new factory on the 328-acre site in Tianjin that is home to Masterwork. It will be a highly automated factory comprising what masterwork calls “an intelligent printing equipment production line” based on Industry 4.0 feedback and techniques.
Mrs Li Li, Masterwork president and Heidelberg board member, says “We firmly believe that the joint venture will live up to the expectations, especially the quality requirements. The joint venture will introduce the most advanced management, production and manufacturing technologies, all of which are based on Industry 4.0.”
This will entail investment in robotic CNC lathes to join the milling centres that are used to produce the platens and folder gluer lines that Masterwork specialises in. It has also expanded into machinery for face mask production, notching 56 sales in the first six months of this year, 12 sold to export through Heidelberg’s distribution channels.
China has become the single most important market for Heidelberg, driving pressure on production at the Qingpu factory near Shanghai. Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer says: “The manufacturing joint venture with Masterwork is a further milestone in the successful cooperation between the two companies and opens up additional opportunities for Heidelberg in China.
“We have increasingly strengthened our leading market position by expanding our range of products at our production site near Shanghai. The increasing purchase of locally manufactured parts will significantly increase our competitiveness in this growth market.”
Heidelberg has concentrated on SX and CX generation machines in China, leaving Germany to focus on XL machines. Chinese produced machines are being exported to take advantage of the lower production costs in the country.
When the alliance between the companies was formed in 2014, there was provision to extend the joint venture on finishing equipment into parts and even press production. Since then, Masterwork has taken an 8.5% share in the German company, becoming its largest shareholder, while Heidelberg has grown its business in China to 900 employees and sales of around €300 million a year.
