Since 2015, the USA has no longer been the largest national economy in the world. It is China. China boasts a gross domestic product of $ 17.6 trillion and 1.4 billion Chinese need to be fed. The Shineway Group, the largest meat producer in the world, plays its part in achieving this. 15 million pigs are slaughtered every year. Shineway has 13 production sites with an annual production of more than 2.7 million metric tonnes and 1,000 different products. However, the desire to expand is undiminishing, thus Shineway has bought sites in the USA, Poland and Romania which now need to be modernised. Modernisation is also required at the main plant in China. The aim is to reduce the workforce by 30 percent – an ambitious undertaking. The decision-makers from Shineway, this Chinese meat colossus, therefore visited the Handtmann Forum for strategy meetings.

The People’s Republic of China has been very dynamic economically for a number of years. It is no longer deemed an emerging market; it has increasingly developed into a major power in terms of economy and technology. This was one of the reasons why a delegation from the Shineway managerial team also paid a visit to Handtmann during their European tour – the search for state-of-the-art technology and the associated strategy meetings on automation and modernisation. The Vice Presidents, He Ke and Haili Qiao, as well as Meng Shufeng, the Equipment Management Center Director and Sheng Lei, Director of Production, showed an interest in new solutions for convenience food and formed products. They also investigated new technologies, such as the ConPro technology for products in alginate casing and robot technology for handling sausage and meat products with transfer to the packaging solution.

Shineway already uses countless VF 600 vacuum fillers, HVF high vacuum fillers, AL sausage filling lines and ConPro systems from Handtmann. More than 400 machines in total (it’s easy to lose track of the exact number in this case…). And as the meeting went very positively and the visitors were very impressed by the process solutions demonstrated, the number will increase significantly. This is because Handtmann is sure to be involved when Shineway starts to invest. Sums have not been mentioned – in accordance with the Chinese mentality you hold back from broaching this subject. But the Handtmann Maschinenfabrik can justifiably hope for some good business. And as the Chinese do not tend to give exuberant praise, the comment from Vice President He Ke after the tour of the company can be deemed a very high accolade indeed: “I’ve never seen a production facility as great as this.”

Author: Brigitte Brehm