MCI adds standards in China

Located on a 300,000 m2 site with its own riverside berth, the Dongguan plant was established with technical assistance from Italian consultants Covenco and started production in early 1998. The venture was short-lived, however, and the plant closed in 2001. MCI bought the facility from the receivers for an undisclosed sum.

MCI plans to modernise the existing 100,000m2 factory building during 2005 and install a completely new production line with a capacity of 100,000 TEU/year. Production is slated to start in the early part of 2006. Quality control standards developed at MCI's reefer plant in Qingdao will be applied at the new facility, which will be capable of building a full range of 20ft, 40ft and 45ft standard and high cube steel dry freight boxes.

In a subsequent phase of development, MCI plans to build another factory unit of similar size to house a second 100,000 TEU/year production line.

According to MCI, the Dongguan site is ideally located for deliveries by barge or road to the major demand centres in Guangdong and Hong Kong, as well as other areas of China, while the riverside berth will facilitate the direct delivery of major raw materials by barge.

MCI is, of course, no stranger to dry freight container construction, having operated the world's most automated production facility at Tinglev in Denmark from 1991 to 2000.

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