PETpla.net Insider 07 / 2017

MOULD MAKING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 07/17 www.petpla.net 9 Tour Sponsors: Investment in the growth of the local PET market Blow mould production in Vietnam by Kay Barton “One of our main customers here in Vietnam is a European company work- ing in the shoe industry. The company comes from Germany, but also has a factory here. We create the form parts for them”, explained Thomas Schröder. “We also supply, for example, a machine manufacturer from Hamburg in Germany, which also has a repre- sentative office in Kuala Lumpur.” The principle idea behind the establishment of a branch office in Vietnam was the wish to shorten the delivery times within Asia and to use the possibilities offered by the growing markets there. Röders initially began in the area of precision-parts manu- facturing and mechanical engineering. In order to get started, a Vietnamese business consultant with a German background was brought on board, and it was he who suggested the loca- tion, particularly due to the infrastruc- tural advantages offered by having an airport and port nearby for exports. Blow mould production itself was only added as a new area six months ago due to the industrial prognoses for PET, in particular for the local market. The company invested approximately US$ 1,000,000 in this part of the pro- duction. “The very first reason for going to Asia was simply to shorten the deliv- ery times to those markets. Vietnam is certainly one of the most exciting”, said Thomas Schröder. “By setting up a facility here, we also wanted to be able to win new customers in Asia on a fully independent basis. Our core markets in addition to Vietnam are Thailand, Taiwan and possibly also Japan in the future.” The low operat- ing costs in Vietnam is something that the machine manufacturer passes on to their customers, and in this way also wants to keep pace with the competition when it comes to prices, but still providing the same level of high quality. The facility is currently manufacturing blow moulds on three high-performance milling machines, one of which was taken over from the machine components for the mould production and two were acquired new. “We are planning to add four further machines over the coming 24 months”, explained Schröder fur- ther. The production building has a production area of 1,600m 2 and has 55 employees working on a three- shift basis. Due to the requirements with respect to precision production, the production area is cooled to 24°C and diverse filter systems ensure that humidity is removed from the air. In keeping with its expansion plans, the company has just rented a further production hall on the neighbouring site with a production area of 2,000m 2 . “This building was just a warehouse; this means that we are currently in the process of putting the necessary infra- structure in place in order to then be able to install the machinery. We want to exclusively concentrate on the blow mould area here.” The Vietnamese facility turned over US$ 2.8 million in 2016; the goal for 2017 is US$ 3.8 million. Schröder is optimistic: “With the market poten- tial on offer for PET, we should be able to achieve this goal.” www.roeders.de The South East Asia Road Show meets Thomas Schröder of Roeders Vietnam Thomas Schröder in his manufacturing area Interview with Roeders Vietnam Co., Ltd. March 30, 2017 We met: Mr Thomas Schröder, Deputy General Director Röders GmbH, a company with a long tradition from the North-German town of Soltau, opened a representative office in Vietnam in April 2013 with the goal of serving the Asian market from there, and growing its sales, particularly in the area of blow-mould manufacturing. The company is known for its milling and grinding machine and blow mould manufacturing, among other products. Vietnam was chosen not least due to the very good growth prognoses for PET packaging in the upcoming years. We spoke with Thomas Schröder who is responsible for the factory in the Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, and who regularly travels between the company’s German headquarters and Vietnam.