Second VMI plant in China & Radial Tire seminar

Grand Opening VMI Ltd

June 9th is an important milestone in the development of VMI’ world business as we officially opened our second factory in Yantai, China. Mr J.J. Spanjer opened proceedings with a warm speech to welcome officials, employees and customers. At exactly 10:28 VMI Ltd was opened for business by the Governor of Gelderland – Mr. Cornielje and Governor of the Developing Zone Yantai - Mr. Wang Yueyi.
 

The reason the opening was carried out at 10:28 precisely was because the number 8 means good luck in China. Mr. Cornielje was already in China accompanying a trade delegation from Gelderland and Overijssel. At the same time he was invited by VMI to open our new factory.

After the various speeches Mr. Cornielje and Mr. Wang Yueyi dotted the eyes of the Lion (see photo). This act represents the Lion officially coming into life and thus the new company coming into being. An explosion of firecrackers completed the ceremony.

Radial Tire Seminar

On the 7th and 8th of June VMI organized its 3rd Radial Car Tire Seminar for customers from Asia, India and the Middle – East. Approximately 70 customers joined the seminar to enjoy the wide ranging topics on offer, for example: Curing Presses, Moulds, Re-treading and new trends in Passenger Car Tire Production.

On behalf of VMI Harm Voortman, Mike Norman, Wiebe Feenstra and Florian Fischer provided lively presentations on VMI’s new innovations while representatives from Bekaert, AZ – Formen und Maschinenbau, Beijing University, Smithers, Collmann and TNO gave interesting presentations on their products to VMI customers. The Seminar was organised to coincide with the Grand Opening of VMI Ltd, the new VMI facility, located in Yantai’s Export Processing Zone on June 9th.

Ambitious growth strategy

The new plant was built to allow the export of VMI machines from China to other parts of the world, and will be an important factor for VMI to stay competitive in the years to come and to enlarge its business as part of its ambitious growth strategy. The plant has been designed to be compatible with existing plants in Europe, the USA and with our facilities in Fushan (Yantai).

VMI Ltd has a total production area of 6000 m², with a warehouse of 1500 m² and 2000 m² of offices. At this moment the company employs a total of 130 people in Yantai, although, the number is expected to increase to around 200 employees this year.

In front of VMI’s first Chinese factory a magnificent statue of a Frisian horse graces the building. In the near future VMI will place a stainless steel statue of a tulip in front the VMI Ltd building.

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