For die-caster, dreams can come true

In 1991 a small spare-parts entrepreneur, Ye Jin Rui, and a village headman, Han Yu Ming, set up an aluminium die-casting factory.

Jump a decade and a half to 2007: Ruiming Group Co. is now a Tier 2 supplier to General Motors in North America.

"Sooner or later we will be a Tier 1 supplier to GM," says Steven Sung, Ruiming's export manager, with the brash confidence common in many Chinese entrepreneurs.

In July Ruiming started mass production of aluminium die-cast products for the Cadillac CTS. Ruiming supplies Cooper Standard Automotive with 7,000 sets of turning brackets a month. Cooper Standard supplies GM in North America.

In the first half of 2008, Ruiming will supply components for GM cars with V-6 engines. Ruiming will supply Mark IV Automotive with approximately 500,000 spacers annually.

Mark IV will in turn supply GM in North America. The spacers are used to connect the intake manifold to the cylinder head.

However, Ye Jin Rui and Han Yu Ming are not content with being Tier 2 suppliers. It has taken the company two years of negotiations and upgrades to reach GM's supply chain, and they naturally want more business.

Says Sung: "We are negotiating with GM for cylinder heads. We keep talking with them via technical conference calls."

A 300-million yuan ($40.6 million) plant, with 100,000 square meters, in Zhejiang province has just begun production. The site includes a die-casting operation, a machining factory and a tooling development technical center.

In 2006, the company used two 20,000 square meter facilities for aluminium die casting and machining.

Together the three plants employ around 1,000 people. Sales in 2006 of die-cast products amounted to 300 million yuan ($40.6 million). In 2007 sales are expected to reach 400 million yuan ($54.1 million). Ruiming expects a big jump in 2009 as the new factory reaches maximum output.

In January 2008 Ruiming will also begin exporting about 1,000 die-cast parts per week to Mark IV for Fiat S.p.A. in Italy. Ruiming will supply Mark IV with intake manifolds for Fiat's F5C diesel car.