HANDTMANN INVESTS IN CHINESE LOCATION TIANJIN

Production area expanded by 50 percent

Handtmann creates space for further growth: With the inauguration of the expansion work, the company Handtmann based in the Chinese city of Tianjin now has an additional 11,000 square metres of floor space available and thus space for six additional high-pressure die casting machines with corresponding peripheral treatment equipment. Two of these have already been commissioned. Added to this is the production capacity of 14 casting machines in the 21,000 square metre "old build". Handtmann Light Metal Foundry (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. – or HFT for short – casts light components in aluminium and delivers these processed ready for installation to VW and BMW – and as of recently also to the automotive supplier ZF. "We have created sufficient space to be able to meet the current needs of our customers directly on site", says happy factory manager Markus Handtmann. HFT currently employs 178 employees with at least another 50 new employees planned in the wake of the expansion. Approximately 2,400 employees are employed worldwide by the Handtmann Group of Companies in the business areas of light metal casting and systems engineering at the German sites Biberach and Annaberg as well as the Slovakian site of Košice and Chinese site of Tianjin.

New order from ZF Shanghai makes “Construction phase 2” necessary

Handtmann has invested around EUR 20 million in this corporate expansion in order to meet the needs of ZF Shanghai directly on site. This structural expansion of Handtmann's Chinese light metal foundry was precipitated by the order from ZF for the casting, processing and delivery of five components for the ZF 8HP 50 transmission housing. Over a period of four years following series production start-up in August 2019, around 200,000 parts will be dispatched from the plant in Tianjin to the ZF factory in Shanghai each year. In Shanghai these transmission housing components will be fully assembled with other parts and delivered to five Chinese end customers. "Numerous employees have worked within the 'Phase 2' project to ensure that expertise and know-how has been transferred from the ZF foundry in Nuremberg to Biberach and then to Tianjin", said company president Thomas Handtmann as he thanked all the participants in the project. "The first sample components have already been cast, inspected and successfully delivered to the cog factory".

The expansion has now been officially inaugurated in a ceremony. "We would like to thank all of our employees from Handtmann Service, Metallgusswerk and HFT, the officials from the TAES, the toolmakers from the company Weinmüller, the representatives from the companies Schlote, Drees & Sommer, Shenglong, SIPPR, Talent and Spaceframe for the successful completion of the second construction phase", said company president Thomas Handtmann at the celebratory opening. Markus Handtmann praised all those who participated in the project, "The team has worked with the utmost professionalism and total dedication to ensure that we were able to successfully reach all critical milestones and complete on time despite our tight schedule". "HFT celebrated its opening exactly four years ago – on 12 March 2015. I am impressed and proud of what has been achieved in the last few years. Without your commitment, your dedication but also your courage it would not have been possible to build this factory and to expand it now", added Wolfgang Schmidt, chairman of the board for the Handtmann Automotive. "And we have even more ideas for further developing the location in terms of value creation and to grow it even further."

Sources: Minglu Fang, Sandra Schad, Mario Krause, Markus Handtmann, Harry Giesler

GRADUATES ARE RELEASED INTO ACTIVE PROFESSIONAL LIFE WITH A CELEBRATION

There are prizes for good performance

Former trainees and DHBW students of the Handtmann Group of Companies found out recently that hard work and effort always pays off at the Biberach Location. 

The new graduate celebration with prize award took place for the first time in March. Among the guests were the graduates who began their training or DHBW study in September 2015 and have since gone on to complete this successfully. As well as the graduates, those present also included the trainers, managing directors and works councils.

Of the total 33 graduates, 19 graduates who achieved an average grade on their completion certificate of 2.0 or higher were presented with a biberCard voucher by company president Thomas Handtmann and Service managing director Jörg Hochhausen. The successful results were then celebrated at a group dinner.

We would like to congratulate all of the graduates on successfully completing and we wish you every success in your new workplace.

Author: Sarah Scheffold

EMPLOYEES AT ANNABERG-BUCHHOLZ ARE THANKED FOR THEIR LOYAL SERVICE

Handtmann Leichtmetallgießerei Annaberg GmbH celebrates with service anniversaries

Recently, we had the pleasure of celebrating the lengthy company service of 17 employees at Handtmann Leichtmetallgießerei Annaberg GmbH. These colleagues have worked for the company for 10, 20, 25, 35, 40 or 45 years. – We thank you for your loyal collaboration.

Author: Ines Szeski