Siemens Healthineers breaks ground on major base

Siemens Healthineers broke ground on a new research, development and manufacturing base in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Thursday, with an investment exceeding 1 billion yuan ($136.66 million).

Operations at the site, which cover a land area of 63,000 square meters with 98,000 square meters of floor space, is expected to kick off by 2027, the company said.

The innovative facility will research, develop and manufacture angiography devices and key components of MR (magnetic resonance) systems, including the DryCool superconducting magnet, a newly released blockbuster by Siemens Healthineers globally.

Upon completion, the new facility will run in conjunction with the existing base in Shenzhen, which was established in 2002, to achieve synergy. Their combined size is projected to triple from what it is today.

Situated in Shenzhen's Xili Lake International Science and Education City, the new site is positioned to build on the city's innovation resources and infrastructure to scale up industry-academia collaboration across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and shape a more vibrant local innovation ecosystem, said the company.

"China has always been a vital source of growth and innovation for Siemens Healthineers. We'll continue to apply our global resources and local advantages to develop an innovative healthcare ecosystem in China and create new opportunities for collaboration," said Elisabeth Staudinger, member of Siemens Healthineers' managing board.

Referring to China's key focuses of work regarding foreign investment this year, Li Yongsha, an official with the Ministry of Commerce, said on Wednesday that the ministry will steadily promote the opening-up of the services industry, especially in the sectors of telecommunications, healthcare and education.

"We'll also revise the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment to enhance the attractiveness of investment policies," Li said.

Siemens Healthineers' confidence in the China market has never wavered since entering the market three decades ago, and the new groundbreaking underscores the company's commitment to deepening localization, said Jerry Wang, president of Siemens Healthineers Greater China and a member of Siemens Healthineers' leadership committee.

Accelerated aging and unmet medical needs, such as room for improvement in the number of doctors as well as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography) machines per capita, in the country were among the factors that drove the company to invest more in China, Wang said.

According to a report on the Chinese medical MRI equipment market by market observer CN Healthcare, the pieces of such equipment owned per 1 million people in China was 12.6 in 2020, roughly one-fifth of that in Japan and one-third of that in the United States.

Siemens Healthineers' current Shenzhen base is the company's only global facility with a complete MRI value chain and the sole R&D and production site for angiography systems outside Germany. It has shipped over 9,000 units of medical devices, with a localization rate exceeding 80 percent.

In terms of R&D, it has launched multiple innovative products that were groundbreaking in China and the world. Its latest MR platform — MAGNETOM Free — has achieved multi-dimensional technological innovations.

In terms of production, the Shenzhen base locally manufactures Siemens Healthineers' full range of MRI systems, as well as floor-mounted, ceiling-mounted and robotic angiography systems, while continuously introducing global leading technologies to China.