Larox Established a Subsidiary in China: Local Service for the Growing Filtration Market

Larox reinforced its presence in the growing Chinese market by establishing a
subsidiary near Shanghai in the beginning of 2009. The subsidiary manufactures
and sells Larox filters and filtration solutions, and offers comprehensive
aftermarket services to Chinese customers. 

“Larox's strategy is to grow, and to offer local service worldwide. China
is a very important market for us, and we want to service our Chinese customers 
in the best possible way. Being present in China will help Larox better respond 
to customers' needs and better monitor market developments and emerging new
applications,” explains Mr. Topi Karppanen, President and CEO of Larox
Corporation. 

China has seen a rapid development of its economy, which has led to expansions 
both in the Mining and Metallurgy and Chemical Process Industries. With the 
growth of these industry sectors, the demand for high quality filtration
solutions has been increasing steadily. “China is facing increasing pressure 
to improve its industry's energy efficiency. There are ambitious targets and 
programs aiming to reduce energy consumption and emissions. This drives demand 
for efficient filtration technology. Larox is very well positioned to offer 
competitive solutions to help our customers reduce costs, consume less energy
and improve process performance in many ways,” says Mr. Karppanen. 

China has also suffered from the global financial crisis and as a result growth
estimations have been lowered. The China market however is still growing, and
according to World Bank estimation published in March 2009, China's economic
growth this year will amount to 6.5 percent. 
 
Long-term commitment to China 

Larox has been represented for many years in China by its local agent Filterox,
but opening a subsidiary demonstrates that Larox really has a long-term
commitment in China. “The majority of the subsidiary's employees were already
working for Filterox,” says Mr. Karppanen, “Filterox has done excellent work, 
and thanks to them Larox has been able to build fruitful cooperation with the 
Chinese customers. It was a natural step for us to offer job opportunities to
the whole Filterox team at Larox. This is also good news for our customers as
they will continue to have the same, familiar contact persons for Larox
products and services.”

“We have brand new production and office premises in the Suzhou Industrial Park
(SIP) near Shanghai, in addition to an office in the city of Shanghai,” reports
Mr. Markku Hakala, Deputy General Manager for Larox in China, “Local assembly
of filters will start in the coming weeks for deliveries scheduled in early
autumn this year. At the moment, we are recruiting to be fully operational with
approximately 40 people in total by the end of this year.”

High Performance for Minerals Processing

“There is an important growth potential in the Chinese filtration market,” 
says Mr. Su Xugui, Managing Director of Larox China, “China is the world's
biggest producer of copper, coal and aluminium, and one of the biggest when it
comes to gold. China is a big country with rapid economic growth which ensures
that the Mining and Metallurgy industries will continue to grow also in the
future.” 

Many Chinese Mining and Metallurgy companies are already operating with
Larox filters. “One of our strengths is the broad product portfolio:
we can offer the right filtration solution for many different needs in the
smelters and refineries. Larox Pressure Filters, for example, have gained a
solid reputation among Mining and Metallurgy customers. This fully automated
technology offers excellent process performance, reliability and lower
operating costs in many applications from the dewatering of mineral
concentrates to tailings,” says Mr. Xugui. 

“By using Larox's pressure or ceramic filtration technologies, our customers
can achieve major savings in energy consumption as they can eliminate the
pre-dryer stage in most of the dewatering applications in the smelter as a
result of drier concentrate,” Mr. Xugui explains, “In hydrometallurgy
applications, our customers get higher production recovery rate because of
better washing results and drier cake. And at the same time, Larox's technology
reduces the environmental impact of the process.” 

Environmental Regulation Drives Demand for Modern Technology

The Chemical Process Industries, another important customer segment for Larox,
is also developing rapidly in China. “It is one of the most important
industries in China, and there is a lot of potential for Larox to help
customers take full advantage of the best technology available. We not only 
supply new equipment and filtration solutions but also modernizations and
process optimizations that will enable customers to expand their capacity,
improve productivity and better comply with environmental and safety
regulations”, explains Mr. Frank Zheng, Larox Sales Manager.

“There are a lot of older equipment in use in the Chinese factories that need
to be modernized or replaced by new modern technology,” says Mr. Zheng,
“Safety, health and environmental regulation is tightening in China, and
that trend is supporting demand for Larox filtration solutions. In addition
to energy savings, our technology permits customers to consume less water which
means their waste water treatment costs will decrease. This is a very important
issue for our Chinese customers today.” 

“Larox is the global market leader when it comes to the pressure filtration of
starch, penicillin G, precipitated calcium carbonate and zeolites, and we work
closely with these industries in China,” Mr. Zheng continues, “With its huge
population, China is in fact the biggest producer and consumer of penicillin in 
the world.”

Local Service Benefits Customers in Many Ways

Mr. Juha Höijer, Larox Service Manager for Asia explains that customers in
China will benefit in many ways from the fact that the company is now operating
through a local subsidiary. “We will have a local spare parts warehouse in 
Suzhou which means that our response and delivery times will be much faster
than before. We offer local service and customer support in local language, and
our customers can pay us in local currency. This change is highly appreciated
by our customers who will not have to worry about currency exchange matters
anymore.” 

China is a challenging market for a company offering industrial services
because in most of the production plants, maintenance is organized internally.
Outsourcing is not common but Mr. Höijer thinks that this trend will change.
“Filters are becoming more and more sophisticated with integrated automation 
systems, among other high technology. It is absolutely better to leave the 
maintenance of the filtration equipment to the hands of Larox experts because
we know these filters and the technology inside out. Our customers can rest 
assure that maintenance work will be done according to the strictest safety 
rules. In addition, we offer genuine spare parts that have been designed for 
Larox's filters and manufactured with the highest quality standards,” 
Mr. Höijer says, “Filtration is a critical step in many production processes, 
and combined with well-thought, wellplanned and regular maintenance, it is 
possible to reduce costs, improve process results and maximize the availability 
of Larox filtration equipment.”

High Larox Quality Standards Worldwide

With ever-increasing cost pressures, Larox, as with all other equipment
manufacturers, has to find ways to ensure that its manufacturing is carried out
as cost-efficiently as possible. “Today, it has become extremely hard to supply
products manufactured in high cost countries, like in Europe, to lower cost 
countries for example in Asia, in a profitable way. To be able to serve
customers in China, we have decided to locate some of our filter assembly to 
China in addition to sales and service functions,” says Mr. Topi Karppanen, 
“However, our philosophy is to manufacture and sell our filters according to 
the same high quality standards all over the world. Whether manufactured in
Lappeenranta Finland, or in Suzhou China, we do not compromise on quality.” 

Larox in Brief

Larox develops, designs and manufactures industrial filters and is a leading
technology company in its field. Larox is a full service solution provider 
in filtration for separating solids from liquids. It supplies comprehensive
aftermarket services throughout the lifespan of the Larox solution.
Companies world-wide in mining and metallurgy, chemical processing and
related industries benefit from the Larox technologies. Larox operates
in over 40 countries and had approx. 500 employees in 2008. Larox Group is
headquartered in Lappeenranta, Finland where the Group also has production
facilities. Net sales in 2008 totaled 208.0 million euros, of which more than
93 % were generated by exports and the company's foreign operations. 

For more information, please visit www.larox.com.
For more information, please visit our stand in Achema, 11-15 May 2009,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany. We will exhibit in Hall 5, stand H30-J35.