A foundation stone laying ceremony was held at Metso’s new Shandong Service Center in Zibo, Shandong province, China, on November 18th.The new greenfield center will provide advanced machinery maintenance and process development services to the pulp and paper making industry in Northern China. Metso’s investment in the new center will amount to over EUR 10 million.
The Shandong center will be Metso’s third service center in China serving the pulp and paper industry. It will be operational in 2009 and will employ 40 service professionals. The new center will feature a fully equipped roll service workshop providing rolls, roll covers as well as mechanical roll maintenance for all makes and sizes of pulp and paper machines. In addition, it will offer a full scope of spare part and mill site services. The Shandong center will also have the facilities to manufacture ceramic roll covers.
Metso has been steadily strengthening its local service operations in China. The Wuxi Service Center in Jiangsu province has doubled its roll service capacity by opening an extension in October 2007. Metso’s new service center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has started its operation in November 2008.
