SHANGHAI – This week while at Auto Shanghai, TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. has announced plans to open three new plants in China this year and next. Two of the facilities are located on the same campus in Zhanghjiagang in the province of Jiangsu. One is dedicated to braking, which is due to start operations at the end of the second quarter of 2015, and the other to occupant safety systems (OSS) with a planned start of production in November of this year. The third is located in Xian and is also an OSS plant – anticipated to be operational by the third quarter of 2016.

Mark Stewart, vice president, Asia Pacific, TRW, said, “The opening of these new facilities demonstrates our continued investment in China and our commitment to supporting the rapid growth of the automotive market here. Our new facilities will support our customers – both domestic and global – with a number of upcoming launches.”

TRW’s braking plant will manufacture and assemble electric park brake (EPB), integrated park brake and front calipers, as well as housing machining, carrier machining and actuation machining and assembly. By the end of 2016, it is planned that more than 750 people will be employed at the plant.

The OSS plant in Zhanghjiagang will assemble driver, passenger, side and curtain airbags as well as seat belt technologies including TRW’s FS1 and SPR4 retractors, buckle head and hood lifters. TRW anticipates that around 500 people will be employed at the facility by the end of 2016.

TRW will localize inflator production at its OSS facility in Xian, which is planned to start operations in July 2016.

According to Stewart, TRW will now have a total of 25 operations and in excess of 10,000 employees in China. This includes the recent opening of the company’s largest research and development center in the world, which is located in Anting.