AMSC opens China division

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 10/30/2007

Westborough, Mass.-based energy technologies company American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) has become just the latest in a long line of tech firms branching out to China.

AMSC today announced that it has formed a new division known as "AMSC China" to serve the wind energy, power grid and industrial markets in China. The company said that it has recently received an enterprise business license from the Chinese government to form a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise in Suzhou National New and Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (SND), located about 50 miles west of Shanghai.

According to the company, the business license allows for domestic manufacturing and sales of AMSC's proprietary power electronics and superconductor products. AMSC said it also has expanded its sales and field service office in Beijing to support and grow its business in China and the broader Asia-Pacific region. AMSC China currently employs 25 Chinese citizens.

"With its rapidly growing economy and increasing energy demands, China has become a key target market for AMSC in recent years," Greg Yurek, founder and CEO of AMSC, said in a statement. "Today, approximately half our revenues are coming from the Asia-Pacific region, with China accounting for the largest fraction of those sales."

The company has gone full speed ahead in developing its China operations. In the electric utility market, AMSC said it has formed a strategic business alliance with Shanghai Electric Cable Research Institute (SECRI), which is one of two Chinese entities that certify all new power cable technology for China. The alliance is aimed at developing and promoting the use of high temperature superconductor (HTS) power cables in China to help transmit and distribute increasing quantities of electric power needed to support the growing Chinese economy, AMSC said. Last year, AMSC won a $5.35 million follow-on contract from the Department of Defense Title II program for accelerating the scale-up of its manufacturing of second generation HTS wires.

AMSC is not at all alone in its enthusiasm to expand into the quickly growing China region.  Last week, Singapore-based semiconductor test and packaging service provider STATS ChipPAC Ltd. announced the grand opening of a second 371,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Shanghai. Also last week, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. announced the opening of a new design center in Chengdu that will focus on 3G TD-SCDMA mobile technology. "Asia represents the single greatest growth opportunity for our business," Michel Mayer, Freescale chairman and CEO, said in a statement marking the Chengdu center's opening.