Rheinmetall Automotive expands piston production in China

Founded in 1997 as a joint venture between KS Kolbenschmidt and today’s HUAYU Automotive Systems and as a member of the SAIC Group (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), KSSP has meantime grown into one of the key piston producers for the Chinese domestic market. The Company has an annual output of 21 million pistons.

Among the global Kolbenschmidt production locations, KSSP has become the biggest manufacturing facility whose 1,200 employees currently generate annual sales of over €200 million. Within China, KSSP has a market leading position for car engine pistons and, over the past decade, has increased its output more than fivefold.

In its first expansion stage, the new location in Chongqing represents an investment of around 500 million RMB (around €65 million). Currently, the plant has a production area of 34,000 square meters. Fitted out with the latest technologies, it employs a workforce of 230 and, in its first year of operation, it will have a production capacity of 5 million pistons.

KSSP was the first of meanwhile three 50:50 joint ventures which Rheinmetall Automotive operates through its subsidiaries in the Chinese market. Together, these companies generate annual sales of over €800 million. The Chinese operations of the international first-tier auto-industry supplier have been bolstered by four wholly owned companies as well as two majority and one minority joint ventures. Aggregate sales of all these Chinese operations of Rheinmetall Automotive amounted to over €930 million in 2016. In all, the auto-industry supplier employs a workforce of around 5,000 people in China.