Key assets for Saft’s continued growth in Asia, and particularly China, are the company’s Hong Kong and Shanghai offices and above all its Zhuhai factory, which enables Saft to provide the high levels of service and support expected by Asian OEMs as well as local nickel-based battery system engineering and assembly.

For industrial and railway batteries, Saft can also integrate local added value to projects by incorporating locally-made engineering and manufacturing of complete systems. For primary lithium batteries and in anticipation of business growth, Saft Zhuhai has invested in a capacity increase, with a new filling machine, laser-welding machine and assembly machine raising the plant’s capacity to 28 million cells per year.

In recent years Saft has been posting strong growth in Asian markets, particularly China, and the company now has a solid presence in railways, aviation, metering, telecoms and energy storage. Saft is also winning significant business from Chinese-based construction firms and OEMs expanding their business throughout the rest of Asia.

In Hong Kong, Saft is the dominant battery supplier to some major players in aviation industry such as Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. As a leader on the Chinese aviation market, Saft supplies spare batteries for jetliners through its distributors Satair (Airbus) and Aviall (Boeing). Saft is also preparing the future on the world’s largest market for new aircraft. Since 2008, COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) has selected Saft’s latest ULM (Ultra Low Maintenance) batteries for the emergency back-up.

Saft has recently completed a major contract for CNR Changchun railway vehicles to supply on-board battery systems for new trains for the west island line of Hong Kong MTR. The on-board battery systems will provide up to 60 minutes of backup power to support vital safety and control functions including braking, smoke detection, emergency lighting and door opening. This successful delivery along with those in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai not only demonstrate Saft’s competence of designing battery systems with long life duration, low-maintenance and high reliability, but also witness its continued growth in China’s railway sector.

Taking full advantage of the locally based battery system engineering and assembly capabilities at Zhuhai plant established in 2006, Saft provides battery systems for the leading train manufacturers in China, e.g. CNR Changchun for Beijing Metro’s Line 6 and Hong Kong’s MTR metro system, and CSR Zhuzhou which has integrated Saft batteries into metro trains for Ankara in Turkey as well as commuter trains for Malaysia.

Saft won a contract earlier this year to supply primary lithium batteries to one of China’s top five gas meter OEMs. The A-size LS17500 cells, developed to ensure reliable, maintenance-free performance over a 10-year plus service life, will power domestic smart meters installed in Zhejiang Province by China’s main gas companies.

This latest contract further extends Saft’s presence in China’s fast growing smart gas meter market, which the China Smart Meter Industry Report 2013-2016 predicts will reach 40 million units in 2016. In 2013, Saft won its first ever smart gas meter contract in China, to supply around 500,000 LS series cells over the next four years to a major gas meter OEM.