Skyjack has signed an investment agreement with the government of Binhai New Area, Tianjin to manufacture products for the Asia Pacific market. This new facility will manufacture products under the Skyjack brand and play a central role in the continued development of the company’s Asia Pacific region.

Initially Skyjack will develop and utilise manufacturing capability and facilities within its parent company Linamar’s existing Tianjin plant, focusing on DC scissor lifts targeted at the domestic Chinese market. Skyjack is also increasing its sales and service operations to promote products to China’s growing rental industry. To lead these activities, Skyjack has appointed Chan Tran as vice president of operations for Asia Pacific.

As volume builds, Skyjack will invest in a dedicated purpose-built facility in the region to enable solid growth in Asia Pacific.

Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar, said, “The Asian market has started to grow in a meaningful way in recent years, making the establishment of in region manufacturing not just viable but highly opportunistic. We believe this will create excellent growth potential for Skyjack in the region, both in terms of creating a close connection to the needs of our customers in the region and in terms of building our distribution network.”

Ken McDougall, president of Skyjack, added, “I particularly want to pay tribute to the local government of the Binhai New Area for their help and assistance in securing this plan. We look forward to our continued partnership as we expand our Asian footprint. Utilising a more global footprint also releases existing production capacities in our existing plants across the globe. That in turn will allows us to better react to growing customer demand in those markets.”

According to Mr Chan, the Skyjack Tianjin facility is forecast to go into production in the third quarter of 2023 and manufacture DC scissor lifts and telescopic/articulating booms. “Linamar entered the China market in 2005 and with five facilities and one research and development centre, I believe the relationship and physical footprint can be significantly leveraged should the need arise,” he said.