Curtain wall maker is London bound
By Wu Yong (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-16 09:00

SHENYANG: Shenyang Yuanda Enterprises Group, one of China's leading structural curtain wall manufacturers, will set up a subsidiary in London in the near future.

Structural curtain walls are used as decoration for buildings made from glass, aluminium and stone.

The new London firm will be Yuanda's first outlet in Europe with an investment of 1 million pounds (US$1.92 million). Its main business areas will include the designing, manufacturing and installment of structural curtain walls.

"This marks a crucial step in the company's efforts to get into the international high-end market," said Wang Yijun, general manager of Yuanda's overseas division.

As an advanced industrialized country, Britain offers a promising market for curtain wall manufacturers. "The new outlet is expected to help us get more involved in global competition," Wang told China Daily yesterday.

He added that Yuanda is also expanding its operations in Russia and East Asia.

The move comes at a time when Yuanda's products dominate the domestic market. Statistics from the company show its output value reached 3.3 billion yuan (US$399 million) last year.

The company has participated in many international projects since 2000, including the Odyssey Block in Britain, the IBM Building in Singapore and the Kuwaiti State Audit Bureau.

In early February, Yuanda won the contract for a Beijing Olympic swimming pool project with its German partner. World leading technologies which have never been used in domestic projects will be adopted for this project, Wang said.

At present, the domestic market makes up the lion's share of Yuanda's total business. However, Wang said he was confident the company's overseas business would overtake its domestic business within 10 years.

Wang revealed that he is in negotiations over a 1 billion yuan (US$12 million) project in Britain, but he declined to give further details.

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