February 1, 2021 saw the official opening of a new CENIT office in Suzhou, China, meaning that CENIT Group now maintains offices in nine countries around the globe. The chief focus of CENIT’s activities in China will be exploiting market potentials in the robotics and Digital Factory sectors.
CENIT AG is further consolidating its presence in Asia: The Company already established a Japanese subsidiary (CENIT Japan) in 2011, and the first sales activities on the Chinese market were launched about four years ago. By establishing an official presence in China, CENIT Software Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., CENIT plans to acquire Chinese OEMs and manufacturing businesses as clients in the digital factory sphere. A clear focus of these activities will be CENIT’s FASTSUITE E2 software, an independent, standalone 3D simulation platform that maps production across the entire digital manufacturing process – from engineering to virtual commissioning.
Suzhou as a business location – A judicious choice
Suzhou, a metropolis of 11 million, was a conscious choice as a location for a CENIT office: The city is a hotspot of German industry involvement in China, and the Yangtze delta with its population centers Shanghai, Suzhou and Nanjing is one of the country’s fastest-growing industrial and business locations. Many companies from the manufacturing and mechanical engineering field are headquartered here: Ideal conditions for CENIT AG and its plans to further expand its digital factory business unit. Currently, the Stuttgart-based IT and software provider already serves about 30 clients in China. The company is certain that a local presence will boost direct market access and enhance client relations.
Promising robotics market
Asked about the reasons for expanding the company’s presence in China, CENIT CEO Kurt Bengel says: “China is currently considered the largest and fastest-expanding robotics market in the world, with sales figures for industry robots topping those for Europe and the US together. Also, robotics is one of the key Chinese industry sectors which receive special promotion via national innovation programs. For CENIT as a provider of software for industrial robots, it’s a logical consequence to be present on this largest market and to seize the available potentials.” In view of the many particularities of the Chinese market, there is no alternative to a local presence: “We intend to establish our software as a standard product for Chinese manufacturing enterprises – and we want to do it with local offers, local service and local customer care. This is the only way to ensure that we react optimally to market and client requirements and fulfill our strategic growth targets”, adds Kurt Bengel.
Encouraging conditions for market entry
CENIT views the current competitive situation as positive: “Local and international players offer excellent solutions that mirror parts of our solutions portfolio. But the level of process continuity in digital manufacturing that we deliver with FASTSUITE E2 gives us a unique selling proposition”, explains Tobias Off, Director of CENIT China. To fully realize the market potentials of this advantage, CENIT will take a strategic, three-prong approach: Direct sales, sales via partners and resellers, as well as collaboration with current and future OEM partners who offer the FASTSUITE software as a component of their machine portfolio.
