MAN Diesel & Turbo Celebrates 30 Years in China

At a ceremony in Beijing, attended by licensees, company officials, business partners and local dignitaries, MAN Diesel & Turbo celebrated three decades of success in one of its most important markets. Klaus Stahlmann, company CEO, held a speech summing up MAN Diesel & Turbo’s eventful history in China in the thirty years that have elapsed since the company signed its first licence agreement there. MAN Diesel & Turbo’s licence history in China started in July 1980 when, after long negotiations, the then B&W Diesel and China Corporation of Shipbuilding Industry, with Hudong as ‘appointed engine works’, finally signed a licence agreement. Over the following years, Dalian and then Yichang joined the fold. 1980 also saw a separate licence agreement made with Shanghai Shipyard for gensets with Zhenjiang as appointed engine works. SXD, HND and SQE subsequently signed licence agreements for CSIC. “The first engines were delivered in 1982, and production subsequently developed hand in hand with the growth of the domestic shipbuilding industry with 18 two-stroke engines delivered annually by 1990 and 51 units by 2000,” said Stahlmann. He continued: “However, the past ten years’ massive investment in Chinese shipbuilding has markedly affected production trends and Chinese engine builders CSSC and CSIC delivered 213 MAN B&W two-stroke along with 597 MAN four-stroke engines in 2009 with 2010 expected to return similar figures.” In tune with the recent jump in production, all Chinese production facilities have been recently extended, with an entire, large-bore factory – CMD – added in 2007 as a result of a joint venture between CSSC and Mitsui. With Guangdong planning to build a similar-sized factory, Klaus Stahlmann predicted the current growth to continue over the next couple of decades and ended his speech by saying: “I believe that we can look forward with confidence to the next 30 years, and I am certain that our current cooperation will continue and deepen over the many coming years.”