Manufacturing and assembly in Shanghai and Hangzhou China has been the largest single market for printing presses from the Koenig & Bauer group for a number of years. It is already more than 20 years ago that KBA established its first local presence on this enormous market, where the current sales and service network comprises KBA Printing Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., further branch offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, and KBA (HK) Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong. More than 170 staff at KBA China provide professional and all-embracing customer services for Chinese users of sheetfed offset, web and special presses.

Speciality sheet feeders: KBA Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

It is possibly less well known that there are also KBA companies manufacturing and assembling press equipment in China. In 2010, for example, Koenig & Bauer AG 2010 acquired an 80% majority interest in MABEG Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (MMS). The company's 63 employees produce mainly sheet feeders for Chinese die-cutter, laminator and sheetfed printing press manufacturers, but at the same time also a variety of parts and components for the European supplier industry.

With effect from 01.04.2014, MMS will be operating under the new name KBA Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (then KMS for short). As chairman of the Chinese subsidiary, Herbert Nadj has already been reporting to KBA executive vice-president for production Michael Kummert since July 2013. With his background in power electronics, Nadj travelled the world between 1986 and 1998 as a service technician and project manager for screen printing machines. From 1998 to 2008, he then contributed decisively to development of the Chinese subsidiary MMS as plant, installation and service manager for Mabeg Maschinenbau GmbH & Co KG, before moving on to Rudolf Fritz GmbH & Co. KG, where he served as technical manager until January 2013. Nadj joined KBA in February 2013 and was appointed chairman of MMS / KBA Machinery (Shanghai) in the following summer. He now plans to expand business relationships to local suppliers in the upper market segment and in this way to win new customers. Given the ever higher quality of production, he also sees a good chance to expand deliveries of components to Europe. 

Speciality marking and coding: KBA-Metronic Hangzhou Co., Ltd.

The Binjiang district of Hangzhou is an upwardly striving high-tech location. A modern high-speed train connects the area with Shanghai, approx. 200 km to the northeast. It was in Hangzhou that KBA-Metronic GmbH and partners founded KBA-Metronic Hangzhou Co., Ltd. as a further sales and manufacturing company in summer 2013. The KBA specialist for industrial marking and coding systems, which has its main offices in Veitshöchheim near Würzburg, expects this investment to give a further push to international growth. Alongside KBA-Metronic, as majority shareholder, the remaining shares are held by In-Dun (HQ) Holding Inc. and In-Dun Co. Ltd. KBA-Metronic and In-Dun can already look back over a long partnership. In-Dun has represented KBA-Metronic in Taiwan since 2005, and in China since 2006. An assembly line for alphaJET inkjet printers is currently being set up at the Chinese factory. Know-how and certain key components, however, are to remain the responsibility of the German headquarters. A total of 23 employees will initially be handling manufacturing, sales and service for China and Taiwan. Additional sales offices are to be opened in Zhejiang and Guangdong. Expansion to supply the rest of the Southeast Pacific region is planned for the future.