AGCO, a leading manufacturer and distributor focusing on agricultural equipment, has opened its brand new manufacturing base in Changzhou, China.

 

The firm has invested $300 million in factories in China, said a statement.

 

Martin Richenhagen, chairman, president and chief executive officer of AGCO, said: “China is one of the world’s largest farm equipment markets and AGCO has attached great importance to the market.

 

“The opening of the new Changzhou location will further enhance our R&D and manufacturing capacity in China, and is a critical step in the implementation of our development strategy for the Asia Pacific region.” 

 

Since entering China in 2001, AGCO has taken a series of measures to expand the business and benefit local customers. The establishment of the new Changzhou factory shows its continuous confidence and commitment to the Chinese market. 

 

The new site will serve both domestic as well as export markets with its professional products and covers a total area of nearly 200,000 square meters. 

 

Established as a manufacturing and R&D base with state of the art technology, the company aims to gradually reach an annual capacity of 20,000 tractors, 30,000 engines and 40,000 rear axles and transmissions, and further promote the localisation of product manufacturing in China.

 

Gary Collar, senior vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific, said: “AGCO has already invested $300 million into existing and new manufacturing sites in China. We are now operating a total of five manufacturing sites in Changzhou, Shanghai, Daqing and Yanzhou respectively across the country and employ more than 1,500 people.

 

“Our whole-machine and spare parts equipment produced in Changzhou are for the domestic market, but are also exported to other Asian and international markets. We aim to offer comprehensive solutions for professional farmers feeding the world and to promote the agricultural mechanization progress of China and the whole world.” 

 

Fred Yang, vice president and managing director of China, AGCO, said: “Changzhou is a strategic location for our long-term development. The geographical advantage and the policy support and incentives to the industry, led to its advantages for establishing manufacturing facilities and the supply chain.

 

“The Changzhou site will not only serve the domestic market, but also become a major global hub of AGCO’s brand new product series - 'Global Series' 70 to 130 hp tractor range. It will provide more opportunities for AGCO to increase its production capacity and develop lean production efficiencies.” 

 

In terms of products, the MF2204 (formerly known as MF7624) is a star tractor series from the Massey Ferguson product line, which will feature consistently stable and highly efficient performance. The 220 hp and 240 hp better-configured products will launch into the market to provide a more efficient working performance and better driving comfort. 

 

Massey Ferguson will provide hay and forage harvester products highly prized in China. Its stable and highly efficient product lines, including the MF-WR9700 series self-propelled windrowers, the MF1800 series small square balers, and the MF2200 series large square balers, guarantee high quality harvesting operations for customers. 

 

The MF-T7 and 4YZ-3A are star products of our fleet of Combine and Harvesters of Massey Ferguson and Dafeng King. The new Changzhou factory will build the newly developed 'Global Series' 70 to 130 hp tractor range which targets the global market. 

 

AGCO is gradually implementing the upgrade and tests for a full set of agricultural machinery products targeting the China market, to ensure the products comply with the Chinese emission standards at Phase III for non-road motor machinery. 

 

In addition, AGCO is making sustained efforts to further strengthen its dealer performance management. Besides its new development initiatives on brand image, the channel strategy this year will focus more on the ’quality’ of sales and service standard of dealers, and AGCO will implement stricter qualification requirements, supervision and more comprehensive training to further promote the integrated capability of dealers to better serve the end users. - TradeArabia News Service