Atlas Copco recently invested about SEK 60 million (about U.S. $9.4 million) to build a new research and development center in Nanjing, China, to safeguard the group’s competitiveness on the Chinese market. The center will employ approximately 250 people within three years after its completion.

The center will provide Atlas Copco’s Construction and Mining Technique divisions in China with specialist engineering services, laboratories and testing facilities. The new center will focus on engineering specifically for the needs of customers within the Chinese mining and construction industry.

“China is one of our home markets,” said Björn Rosengren, business area president Atlas Copco Construction and Mining Technique. “We are making this investment to strengthen our design and development capacity and offer our Chinese customers a shorter time-to-market for products designed to suit their specific needs.”

The new research and development center is expected to open in October 2011.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Atlas Copco is an industrial group with world-leading positions in compressors, construction and mining equipment, power tools and assembly systems. Atlas Copco’s Construction and Mining Technique business area develops, manufactures, markets and services rock drilling tools, construction and demolition tools, mobile crushers and screeners, drill rigs and equipment. For more information, visit www.atlascopco.com.