SKF recently announced that it will invest approximately US$48 million to improve the competitiveness of its deep groove ball bearing (DGBB) products. This will include the transfer of production from Bari, Italy to Asia and Eastern Europe. The company's DGBB manufacturing in China will also be integrated into a new factory, and automated production channels will be implemented in Italy.

The new DGBB plant in Xinchang, China will require an investment of approximately US$39 million and is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2020.

"Through this investment, we will improve our competitiveness in Asia," said Patrick Tong, President of SKF Asia Industrial Sales. "Having transferred the group's DGBB global product development from Europe to China, we will now be able to strengthen our full value chain approach to meet local customer and application needs."

The total investment in the Italian factory is about 5.3 million US dollars, which will realize manual operation automation and flexible and more competitive manufacturing processes. The reduction of related personnel will result in a restructuring cost of approximately US$14.9 million. The automated production channel in Italy is expected to be completed in the second half of 2020.

In addition, more than US$3 million has been invested in technology and capacity upgrades of existing plants in Asia and Eastern Europe.

"We are deploying one of the most advanced, flexible and fully automated assembly lines in the world in Bari," said Kent Viitanen, president of SKF's bearing business. "This can shorten the reset time from a few hours to a few minutes, which means greater flexibility and higher levels of customer service. This investment will also help improve quality and allow us to develop the skills of our employees ability."

For more information, please visit www.skf.com.