Leading container spreader manufacturer NSL Engineering Pte Ltd has opened a plant in China to meet rising global demand for its spreaders.

Production of NSL Engineering's Ram spreaders has started at the new Changshu facility, in Jiangzhou province, an NSL statement said.

The 6,400 square metre plant, planned in 2004 and completed at the end of 2005, has an initial production capacity of 180 to 200 spreader units a year.

Philip Lee, NSL general manager, sales & marketing, said China was the "obvious choice" for a new production facility considering the company's strength in the Asian market. Shenzen terminals, in China, has 300 Ram spreaders.

Lee said it was too costly to expand NSL's Singapore plant, so the China plant was built to manufacture products like yard gantry spreaders, overheight frames, hook beams and headblocks. Electrical and hydraulic components will be sourced from Singapore.

A new NSL subsidiary, Changshu Ram Engineering Co Ltd, will operate the Changshu facility. Most of the workforce has been recruited.

The Changshu facility is equipped with specially designed blasting and painting facilities, in-house machining capability and new tools and jigs.

NSL Engineering Pte Ltd, which claims to be the world's second largest container spreader manufacturer, produces spreaders under the Ram Spreaders brand. It has plants in Singapore and the UK and is a subsidiary of Natsteel Ltd.

Natsteel was established in 1964 to support Singapore's infrastructure and residential developments. The group diversified into steel fabrication and construction-related products and services in the 1980s and has an annual turnover of more than USD827 million. It employs more than 17,000 people in 15 countries.