Sapa delivering top quality in China - and safely

Sapa Group President & CEO Egil Hogna has had his first look at the company's operations in China, the largest aluminium extrusion market in the world. The focus on quality as well as on employee safety left its mark on Sapa’s new chief executive.

Hogna visited the fabrication plant north of Shanghai, the extrusion and aluminium facility in Suzhou, and the 50/50 joint venture company Sapa Chalco Aluminium Products, which is located in Chongqing.

“Global companies prefer to deal with us because they know we deliver higher quality and that we have the highest standards when it comes to safety, human resources policy and compliance,” says Hogna, referring to Sapa’s work in China.

As an example, he points out that the Shanghai plant has an injury rate of 1.9 per million hours worked – a figure that is considerably lower than Sapa’s global average. “It is not possible to run a quality-focused organization unless you make sure that you always work in a safe manner. It’s a prerequisite,” he says.

“The parts we fabricate in this plant are delivered to some of the most demanding customers in the world. It’s very encouraging to see that the employees really understand the importance of zero-defect quality and that they have the experience and skills to deliver it to customers,” he added.

The extrusion and aluminium tubing facility in Suzhou – the plant is located in one of the most renowned industrial parks in China – just celebrated its 10th year of operation. As with its sister site in Shanghai, the Suzhou team stresses excellence in employee safety and product quality.

“Our goal is zero quality deficiencies and zero injuries,” says manufacturing manager Yilei Wu.

The tubing plant has expanded over the years, most recently in 2012. Moreover, to meet the growing demand of the automotive industry, Sapa will install another press in Suzhou during the first half of next year.