For the second time this month Deere & Company has said it will build a new plant in China, this time detailing a $60-million plan for a plant to manufacture engines for its agricultural, construction, and forestry equipment. The new factory will be situated in Tianjin, near other Deere operations.
The new plant is due to start operation late in 2013. The $80-million plant announced earlier this month would manufacture large agricultural equipment like tractors and harvesters, starting up in late 2012.
Chairman and CEO Samuel R. Allen said the new engine plant will “allow John Deere to deliver increased technology for China customers while leveraging enterprise investments and engineering resources in China."
Moline, Ill.-based Deere is among the world’s largest manufacturers of heavy equipment for agricultural work. The new plant will be Deere’s eighth manufacturing operation in China and its sixth engine factory worldwide. Each of the other engine plants — in Argentina, France, India, Mexico, and the U.S. — is located near Deere’s equipment assembly plants.
When it announced the new assembly plant, Deere noted rising demand in China and the region for large agricultural equipment in the region.
"We believe the integration of John Deere engines into the equipment we manufacture provides Deere with a competitive advantage because our customers have a highly integrated machine and they experience improved performance for fuel economy, emissions and noise reduction," according to Jean Gilles, senior vice president of John Deere Power Systems.
