Elevator firm opens plant in Zhongshan

Germany's thyssenkrupp Elevator, a diversified industrial group with a history of more than 200 years, on Friday opened its new plant and a test tower in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, a traditional manufacturing city in the Pearl River Delta region.

The company said it will continue its investment in China as the country's demand for high-quality elevators keeps increasing because of its rapid urbanization, said a company executive.

"China has become our largest market in Asia and the elevator business is our focus of future investment," said Jurgen Bohler, CEO of thyssenkrupp Elevator (China).

"We have continued to increase our investment in China as the country is the world's largest new installation elevator market and a strategic market for thyssenkrupp," Bohler said.

The new Zhongshan plant and test tower is one of the company's most important investments in China, with the facility covering an area of 100,000 square meters and representing a total investment of about 800 million yuan.

"The plant, with a planned production capacity of 30,000 units a year, is highly automated with very modern production lines, representing our development concept of sustainability," he said.

The 248-meter-high test tower, the tallest thyssenkrupp test tower in the world, will begin operating in the middle of this year, according to the company.

The tower provides a testing environment for a high-speed elevator with a speed of up to 18 meters per second that thyssenkrupp is developing. In the future, it will also be used to test the world's first ropeless elevator system developed by the company.

"As an important part of thyssenkrupp's global manufacturing base, the completion of the new Zhongshan plant and the test tower serves as the new driving force for the in-depth development of the company worldwide," said Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO of thyssenkrupp Elevator.