Plans to build a new manufacturing facility in China to produce small to medium-size diesel engines, were announced last week by Perkins at the Chinese construction exhibition Bices, in Beijing.

Perkins president, Hans Haefeli said the company’s manufacturing facility in Wuxi, in the Jiangsu province, would initially produce the Perkins 400 Series, a range of three- and four-cylinder, liquid-cooled, naturally aspirated and turbo-charged indirect-injection engines.

“This new facility will make the 400 Series engines more readily available for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with operations in China and the Asia Pacific region,” said Haefeli, who explained that the plant would be operated by the Perkins Shibaura joint venture.

“There is no doubt that the Chinese market represents a fantastic opportunity for us, as we look to further grow sales of our engines and parts business and re-establish and reinvigorate the Perkins brand in China.”

Haefeli also stressed the importance of providing Chinese OEMs with cost effective, high performance, quality engines backed by Perkins’ service and support network.

Perkins has already appointed three distributors; Elco Power Systems in Hong Kong, Lei Shin Hong in Shanghai and Westrac in Beijing. Through these distributors Perkins’ Chinese customers will have access to the same high levels of service already provided throughout the world.

When the manufacturing facilities in Wuxi are fully operational, there will be a capacity to build more than 100,000 engines per year.

Although the latest emissions legislation in Europe and North America does not come into force until 2008, Perkins will be building diesel engines for existing Chinese OEM customers and targeting new OEMs who furnish local and export overseas markets.