Establishment of a Production & Sales Company for Liljedahl Group
With 1,300 employees the Swedish Liljedahl Group generates an annual turnover of about 800 million €. Together with its subsidiary AB Elektrokoppar Liljedahl is one of the leading European manufacturers of bare and enamelled copper wire/profiles. Every year around 200,000 tons of copper and aluminum are refined in the Liljedahl plants in Sweden, Germany and China.
Railway industry (for electrification) and electrical industry are the key markets for the products of Elektrokoppar. Focussing on copper profiles for commutator industry, in mid of 2004 Elektrokoppar assigned FE to investigate the production environment, the availability of raw materials and the main suppliers as well as the demand and potential customers in the Chinese market. Encouraged by the results of this market research, Elektrokoppar asked FE to recruit a Chinese sales manager for Elektrokoppar, who initially worked in FE’s Shanghai office and built up contacts to the local commutator industry.
By early 2005 Elektrokoppar decided to set up an own production in China. Again FE has been assigned to select suitable industrial zones, to negotiate and fix the rental contract, to draft the articles and to get the final approval of the local authorities. After thorough on-site-checking of suitable locations, Elektrokoppar finally decided to establish its production company in Taicang, nearby Shanghai. In 2006 the business licence has been issued and the production was built up. End of 2007 EKS Isodraht Profiles (Taicang) Co Ltd. (see photo) filled already the initially installed production capacity mostly with local Chinese customers, and took the decision to double their production capacity by end of 2008.
