Ambitions and Challenges

Uniteam Group has been in the forefront of developing special container business into new markets. Based on experiences from production in Norway, Sweden, Poland and Russia, we decided to start design and production in China in 2003. China has become the world’s largest manufacturer of Shipping Containers with more than 80% of the world production output. It was of course interesting to look at the possibilities for manufacturing special containers in China as well. The main competitive advantage from manufacturing in China is the relatively low cost of labor. Special container production requires a lot of manual work and is quite labor intensive. In a world market with increasingly stronger price competition, it has been critical to keep the production cost down to be able to compete in international tenders.

Transfer of knowledge is the main challenge every time one start up or move production to a new country. The start up of production in China has been no exception for Uniteam, and we have tried to reduce the risk by starting with smaller volumes in the initial stages. We have permanent management, engineers and quality inspectors in China to follow up the production and quality of the products. We are currently increasing the organization in China with technical staff with experience from the industry from India, Australia and Europe.

Our ambition is that China shall be the major production and sourcing center for Uniteam’s world production of containerized solutions. By strong focus on improved engineering, quality and finish on the products, we are confident that our products from China will be to the customer’s satisfaction. Our business in China has gained momentum and Uniteam in China is now supplying special containers, shelters and related products to defense and oil industry clients in Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa and of course China.