The C&U Group, parent company of North American subsidiary, C&U Americas, has announced a major expansion of its Taper Roller Bearing plant facilities and overall production capabilities at the company’s Tainai complex, which is located in the Fengxian District near Shanghai. C&U is China’s largest bearing producer and one of the world’s top 10 bearing manufacturers.

A key objective of the expansion is to help meet the demands of C&U’s rapidly growing North American market. In making the announcement, William A. Childers, president of C&U Americas, noted, “The added capabilities of the Tainai facility are just what we need to keep pace with our successful growth in the U.S. market and aggressive plans to expand our bearing business throughout the entire NAFTA region.”

C&U’s Tainai facility was established in 2004 and started producing both single-row and double-row taper roller bearings in 2005. In 2012, a second plant was added and the facility began to incrementally increase bearing production capacity. Overall floor space has been increased by a factor of four from 3,799 square meters to 15,100 square meters. The production lines have been doubled, giving the ISO/TS16949 certified plant 18 operational lines. All of the new lines are fully automated.

The Tainai plant expansion is an ongoing process and more production lines will be added over the next five years. This will more than double the current capacity. When the expansion is completed, the plant will be operating a total of 39 production lines and delivering over 2,260,000 taper roller bearing units per month.