Dalian, China Plant is Complete

Gibbs-Dalian is open for business! Halla Climate Control will be using Gibbs-Dalian parts for air conditioners in the Hyundai automobiles built in China for the Chinese market.

The brand new building provides 61,000 square feet of manufacturing and support space. In its current configuration, it can accomodate up to six horizontal casting presses. However, the building was specially designed to be efficiently expanded to provide a 10-press operation, should demand warrant.

The initial production equipment consists of one 950-ton horizontal high pressure casting machine and one 1200-ton horizontal machine. A second 950-ton casting press is planned to be installed in 2007, to meet projected business growth. Initial parts will be cast from Aluminum alloy, but it is expected that there will be a growing demand for Magnesium castings in the future.

Gibbs-Dalian begins production with 32 employees, some of whom have been training at Gibbs-Korea for several months. However, the current business plan projects employment to increase to 97 by 2007 to support production ramp-up schedules.