SINGAPORE, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-based General Electric (GE) announced here Thursday an investment of 60 million U.S. dollars over the next 10 years to set up a new repair and development center for its landmark High-efficiency Air-cooled (HA) gas turbines.
The Global Repair Engineering and Development Center is to be built upon its existing Global Repair Solutions Singapore in west Singapore's Jurong industrial area, which used to fix mostly broken power generators and gas and steam turbines, and will become GE's largest gas turbine repair site for its HA and Aeroderivative gas turbines.
The new center will begin repairing HA components such as HA nozzles and blades in 2021, and will include a research and development center to develop next-generation HA repair capabilities. In addition to the current 250 employees, 160 new engineers will be trained to fix the new generation turbines as well as to develop more advanced repair techniques.
By providing an HA repair service in Singapore for the region instead of going all the way to South Carolina in the United States, the new center is expected to cut the four-month average repair cycle for Asia-Pacific customers by half by 2021.
"GE's investment in the Global Repair Engineering and Development Center marks the latest milestone in our longstanding partnership and extends the company's range of activities in Singapore," said Beh Swan Gin, chairman of Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
"Singapore has been a key industrial and talent hub for GE over the last 50 years. The quality of talent, belief in our team and the work they are doing here, and our strong partnership and trust with the government and EDB are key reasons we chose Singapore for this investment," said Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Gas Power, adding that the new center will allow GE to better serve their HA customers in Asia as they provide localized support.
