ThyssenKrupp, the German industrial giant already boasting business relations with China spanning 140 years, has vowed to expand its presence by setting up a holding company and more joint ventures, as well as acquiring local utilities.

"Our presence in the Asia Pacific region is to be systematically expanded through targeted strategic acquisitions and joint ventures," Ekkehard D. Schulz, chairman of the executive board of ThyssenKrupp said at a press conference yesterday in Beijing.

"We are looking into further projects and conducting intensive discussions with a number of Chinese partners," he added.

Owing to growth potential, China has been the group's most important location in Asia, generating 13.6 per cent of the group's total foreign sales of 25.8 billion euros (US$31.7 billion) last year.

The company has set a target to grow its sales revenue in China almost four-fold to reach 4 billion euros (US$4.9 billion), Alfred Wewers, chief representative for ThyssenKrupp China told China Daily.

To aid the group's bold expansion plans, the industrial giant yesterday said it will soon establish a national holding company, called ThyssenKrupp (China) Ltd, to co-ordinate the group's wide-ranging activities in China which involve a total of 30 companies nationwide with 3,700 employees generating sales of around 1.1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) last year.

"We expect to get the final approval from the Ministry of Commerce in June or July," said a ThyssenKrupp official, who told China Daily they submitted the application earlier this year.

The Beijing-registered firm will also establish and develop contacts between the group's high-ranking representatives and decision-makers in the government, administrations and industrial regulators, in a move to foster its business growth, which spans the steel, automotive, elevator, technologies and services sectors.

On the basis of its massive business presence across the nation, the company has a cluster of further sales outlets and manufacturing units scheduled to be set up, in order to boost its production and services in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

A joint venture with An'gang New Steel Co and Zhongren Rui Zong Component Industry Ltd is under construction in Changchun of Northeast China's Jilin Province to manufacture carbon steel products, and further steel service centres are to be established in China's key automotive centres in the coming years.

In the elevator business, the industrial conglomerate has supplied products to major buildings in Shanghai and Guangdong Province, and vowed to take every opportunity to grow its annual sales at double-digit rates.

Source: China Daily