Greens Holdings, a mainland maker of equipment that enhances the operating efficiency of power generating plants, plans to set up facilities in India and Brazil to circumvent import tariffs and better serve local customers.
The company, whose 'economiser' product was first patented in 1845 by its original founder, British iron-master Edward Green, will, however, still use its production facilities in Shanghai and Jiangsu province to serve India and Brazil to reap the maximum cost advantage.
Its economiser product is a heat-exchanging device fitted to a boiler which saves energy by using the exhaust gases from the boiler to preheat the cold water used to fill the boiler. The device saves fuel consumption in power plants.
'We want to leverage on China's production efficiency and seven-day working environment,' said company chairman Frank Ellis. But at the same time, he added, it was necessary to set up facilities in India and Brazil to escape import duties of up to 30 per cent, fulfil local content requirements, and better meet customer needs.
Through various acquisitions over the decades, Edward Green's business is today part of Hong Kong-listed Greens Holdings, controlled by Ellis, a 62-year-old British engineer.
In India, Greens Holdings was eyeing the vast growth potential of the electricity market, while Brazil's big offshore oil and gas drilling market was targeted for its marine boiler products, he said.