Gestamp, Local Partner Launch JV in China

Automotive metal-components manufacturers Gestamp and Beijing Hainachuan Automotive Parts open a new joint-venture plant in Tianjin, China.

The JV enhances Gestamp’s ability to supply Daimler and Hyundai, among other international clients, in the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei areas, the Spanish multinational company says in a news release. Gestamp also will work with Chinese automaker BAIC’s own vehicle brands across China, as Beijing Hainachuan is a subsidiary of BAIC Group.

The JV, representing an investment of more than €50 million ($56.7 million), employs more than 250 people and mainly will focus on stamping and assembly of body-in-white and chassis components. The plant includes two hot stamping lines and nine laser cells.

“The new Tianjin plant strengthens our position in China together with our partners from BHAP,” Gestamp Executive Chairman Francisco Riberas says. “We are fully committed to bring the latest technologies to the Chinese automotive market in order to make lighter and safer cars.

“We are in an excellent position to reinforce our existing commercial projects with our international customers and with local Chinese brands that are strongly focusing in Electrical Vehicle, where Gestamp has an important impact,” he says.

“The collaboration with Gestamp is an important movement to focus on lighter technology trend, optimizing our industrial supply chain, speeding up the transformation and upgrading our products,” BHAP Chairman and BAIC Group Vice President and Deputy General Manager Cai Suping says.

The Tianjin plant increases Gestamp’s industrial footprint in China to 11 production facilities and two R&D centers. The company has more than 5,100 employees in the country and says it invested more than €360 million ($408 million) there from 2013 to 2017.