The machinery firm has tied up with Chinese firm Nanjing Keya

Machinery manufacturer Coperion will this month start marketing a new Chinese-made standard extruder following the “integration” of Chinese twin screw extruder manufacturer Nanjing Keya into the Coperion group.

Coperion’s chairman Wolfgang-Dietrich Hein signed the agreement with Keya in June, but the company would not reveal any more information about the deal. Doris Glogovec of Coperion’s marketing and communication department told PRW.com “it can be described as intensive co-operation”. She was not able to say if Coperion has taken any financial stake in Keya.

The Coperion Keya subsidiary will not only serve the Chinese market with state-of-the-art machines, but is starting international marketing through the Coperion group of the STS standard twin screw extruder developed jointly by Keya and Coperion. A new production plant will come on stream in mid-2005 to meet the anticipated increased demand for the STS extruder.

Earlier this month Hein said: “Rapid growth in Asia has lead to a multitude of machinery suppliers in the low and medium cost segment. Established machinery suppliers have to face up to this development in order not to leave this market to the Asian competition.”

Coperion said that Keya, founded in 1993, is the main twin screw extruder maker in China with a market share of over 60%.