Business
Weir opens new foundry in China
Weir opens new foundry in China.
About this update from Weir Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\nWeir opens new foundry in China\nThe Weir Group, a global mining technology leader, has officially opened its new foundry in Xuzhou, China. The foundry, which is part of Weir's ESCO global foundry network, expands capacity for the manufacture of ESCO® ground engaging tools, or GET, in line with continued growth opportunities.\nThe opening ceremony, hosted by Weir's CEO Jon Stanton, was attended by a Senior Leadership Team from Xuzhou Hi-Tech Industry Zone and other members of Weir and its ESCO division from China and across the globe.\nOccupying a 16.5-acre site in Xuzhou's High-Tech Industrial Zone, the new foundry features the very latest technology and equipment, incorporating high levels of automation. These enable us to optimise capacity and enhance our foundry processes, improving efficiency and further reducing cost of manufacture, aligned with the goals of our Performance Excellence transformation programme. It strengthens our global foundry network, ensuring we remain highly responsive to customers' needs.\nThe new foundry represents a $60m investment and will replace our existing foundry that is located close by. Staying in Xuzhou allows us to capitalise on our culture of continuous improvement and sustainability, resulting in consistently high performance in process control, safety, employee engagement and on time delivery. We are pleased to retain our highly skilled and loyal workforce - many of whom have been with us since we began foundry operations in Xuzhou in 2006.\nThe new foundry has been designed to produce a wider range of our proprietary GET products, including larger sized components, enabling the manufacture of more product types in a more cost-effective way. It expands our foundry capacity in China by over 30% and provides additional flexibility across our global network to best serve our customers around the world.\nSpeaking at today's official opening, Jon Stanton, CEO of Weir said:\n\"The opening of our new foundry in Xuzhou is a significant strategic milestone for Weir. I'd like to congratulate our project team in Xuzhou who have designed and built what we expect to be the safest, most efficient, most sustainable, most advanced foundry within our global network. I'd also like to thank our partners throughout the Xuzhou government for their time and experience to help deliver this importan...