Kennametal breaks ground for China facility

Kennametal Inc. broke ground on Tuesday, March 15 for the company's new Chinese manufacturing plant. Located in the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA), the facility, initially sized at 15,000 square meters, will employ some 200 people in manufacturing and advanced engineering and design activities. This facility could grow to 35,000 square meters, and employment could reach 400 people. Estimated investment in this new plant will be between 30 to 40 million USD, which is in addition to the approximately 35 million USD that the company already has invested in its China business.

The company, headquartered in western Pennsylvania in the U.S., began operations in China in 1991 via a wholly owned foreign Beijing company now named the Kennametal Xuzhou Co. Ltd. In the ensuing fourteen years, it has established Kennametal Ltd., a manufacturing plant in Jinqiao Export Processing Zone in Pudong, Shanghai, and completed the purchase of what is now Kennametal Hardpoint Inc.

Plans for the design and construction of the new TEDA facility are underway, and the company expects to begin serving customers from the new plant by mid-2006.