With an attendance of over 150 people, including local officials, board members, customers and suppliers, ME Elecmetal inaugurated a new mill liners plant in the city of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on May, 2014. The plant, designed for an annual production capacity of 30,000 t of steel liners involved an investment of $45 million and will employ 300 people. The construction was completed in record time and without accidents.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Directory Board of ME Elecmetal (China), consisting of Jaime Claro, ME Elecmetal Chairman, along with Baltazar Sanchez and CEO Rolando Medeiros; representatives of the Chilean authorities such as the Chilean Ambassador in China, Ramiro Riobo; and also local authority figures including Quoqiang Fang, Deputy Mayor of Changzhou Municipal People’s Government and Wang Yuwei, Vice Director of the Changzhou New District Administrative Committee.

“Years ago we decided that it was necessary to have a manufacturing facility in China. We needed to supply our customers with operations in Asia, Oceania and Africa. Teams from China, Chile and the US worked in the design and construction of an ultra modern plant destined to become another great asset to our company” said Claro. Rolando Medeiros, CEO of ME Elecmetal, noted that “our experience in the construction and management of this type of facility, accumulated over the nearly 100 years of ME Elecmetal, will be reflected in the new plant, where safety, quality and high productivity are essential for our business.” This is the sixth steel foundry fully-owned by ME Elecmetal, in addition to three other plants in Chile and two in the US.