Hella doubles its production capacity at its site in Shanghai

In view of the further increase in demand for electronics solutions, Hella has doubled the production capacity at its Shanghai location. In order to make this happen a new building was added to the electronics plant located there and the existing space was fundamentally remodelled, the company states in a press release. With a total building area of around 50,000 square metres, this is now the largest electronics plant in the entire Hella network. While not disclosing the actual size of the investment, the company says that it is in the high double-digit million euro range. Hella currently employs about 1,600 people at its Shanghai site, which is also home to a research and development centre. However, within the next three years, Hella intends to increase the at the location to up to 2,200 employees. "China is one of the most important automotive markets. Almost every third vehicle produced worldwide rolls off the production line in China. At the same time, the Chinese market is one of the most important drivers of industry change," says Björn Twiehaus, who is responsible for the global electronics business on the Hella Management Board in the press release. "We therefore anticipate a further increase in demand for sophisticated electronics solutions, for example for electromobility or automated driving. With the significantly expanded production capacities of our Chinese lead plant in Shanghai, we are primarily serving customer orders that have already been booked and are creating optimal conditions to meet the further increasing demand in the market," Twiehaus continues. The production spectrum of the electronics plant in Shanghai covers the company's entire product range. Currently, a total of more than 40 million electronic components are manufactured there each year. Series production of 77 GHz sensors for a Chinese car manufacturer is expected to start in the new building by the end of November. At a later stage, production of voltage converters and components for steering electronics will be started on highly automated production lines.