In connection with our new 2020 strategy, China has become an important focus area. China is in many ways a challenging market, but it also holds great potential, and our growth plans include China as a market to grow significantly by 2020.
Own sales office and dealer in Shanghai
As part of the effort, we have opened our own sales office in Shanghai, where we have hired 3 employees with many years of sales experience, especially in the sensor area.
One of the business areas where Senmatic’s sales team in China has succeeded in creating a solid foundation is sensor solutions for LNG tank farms. Through targeted sales efforts with design institutes, EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Contracting) and LNG tank builders, several projects have been won, including the largest announced LNG project in 2018. China is improving its infrastructure of LNG refueling facilities to reduce pollution from traditional energy sources such as oil and coal. This applies to both power plants and the merchant fleet, where there are also stricter requirements to reduce the emission of hazardous particles from ship engines.
Another important business area for Senmatic in China is the wind turbine industry, where there is also momentum with several major manufacturers, both Chinese and international.
Our three employees continue to work hard to create a good customer base and a strong project pipeline – and as mentioned, they are off to a good start.
On the horticultural side, we continue to work closely with our distributor, Shanghai Sungiao Yijia Agricultural Science & Technology Co, Shanghai Sunqiao Yijia was one of the very first companies to start technical research in horticulture and industrialized use of soil in reduced quantities for crops such as vegetables, fruits and flowers. Through 30 years of development, Shanghai Sunqiao Yijia has achieved remarkable results in building advanced nurseries, breeding new varieties, nutrient solutions and irrigation systems. With 150 employees, the company has expanded its business across China and successfully established subsidiaries in the Tibet area and several Chinese provinces. Shanghai Sunqiao Yijia is ISO9001 certified.
The distributor handles contact and sales to nurseries and greenhouse builders in several parts of China – and here too the development is positive.
Production facilities
To increase proximity to our customers in the Chinese market, we have entered into close cooperation with an external supplier Suzhou IE-Tech Co. Ltd.
SSIE – as the supplier is known – is a reputable company founded in 1958. SIE is a traditional Chinese company whose core business is FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit). Over the past 15 years, SIE has expanded its production capacity to include cable assembly, plastic injection molding and mold development. The company has 450 employees and a production area of 20,000 m2. SIE works within the same processes as we do, has a high level of capability and considers quality assurance to be an extremely important factor. The company is therefore also certified within ISO9001, ISO14001 and TS16949. They produce components for part of our sensor range, and we expect to increase our production with them for the expected increased growth in the Chinese market.
Chinese webpage
As an additional strength, we will become even more visible in China during the summer as we will launch our new Chinese website there – and our videos will be available on YouKu (YouKu is the Chinese equivalent of YouTube).
Business areas
If you are interested in knowing more about our business areas, you can find a lot of useful information here about Sensor and Horticulture.
Contact
You are of course also very welcome to contact us – we would love to hear from you.
We are very optimistic about the progress in China, and we look forward to continuing to work with our new strategy, which sets the framework for a new journey for Senmatic.
