PCB |
Official opening of GPV's PCB facility in China
As a part of Danish based PCB producer, GPV's strategy "Fit For the Future", the GPV PCB division has opened a new competence centre and factory in the Suzhou region of China on 28 June 2005. This gives GPV the capacity to manufacture small batches of PCBs in China in line with European standards.
From the end of June 2005, GPV has joined forces with the Danish Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) to establish facilities in China with a factory that can supply Danish quality, delivery reliability and control - at Chinese prices. The factory is in Suzhou - just an hour's drive from Shanghai, in an industrial area where a range of other European companies have similarly chosen to locate.
With its own factory in China, GPV has succeeded in shortening the distance to China significantly. The Far East has long been a supplier of PCB production to Danish companies, but thus far operations have primarily been limited to large batches, where the savings available more than offset the costs linked to running production over such a long distance. The new factory covers 7,500 m2 and is based on tried and tested technology for the manufacture of small and medium-sized batches. The facility will employ 150-200 people.
The contact goes through GPV 's European centres, and the factory applies European cost optimisation to the handling of orders to ensure the best possible production technology solution for customers.
The delivery time from China is 3½ weeks for up to 8-layer PCBs, and delivery reliability is assured by back-up production based in Europe. With its production units in Denmark, the GPV PCB Division provides flexible and rapid deliveries, and the solutions are backed by a global sourcing concept for the large batches.
According to Anders D. Larsen, Director of the GPV PCB Division, this latest move is part of a closely targeted strategy of establishment in China:
"In recent years, we have been working to establish a PCB technology competence centre in China. We have now succeeded, and in this context, the Suzhou factory opens up new opportunities for supplementing the existing competences within the division. This means that we now have the capacity to offer our customers a trail-blazing concept which can cover demand for small and medium-sized batches from the Far East - but from GPV's own factory.
"In contrast to the other European players in the PCB business, we can ensure that quality and all other parameters are run according to European standards while at the same time manufacturing at competitive prices," explains Anders D. Larsen.
The GPV PCB division is an independent business unit within the GPV organisation. Along with the competence centres in Denmark - GPV Chemitalic and GPV Printca - the factory in China constitutes one of the core areas of the division. These are backed by GPV Global Sourcing with its strong global network of external partners that specialise in medium-sized and large batches.
