Monday, July 16, 2012

15 July 2012: The plant is coming out of the ground.. and dinner with our friends

Greetings all,
Not alot of exciting stuff going on these days,  just lots of work and trying to get the  plant I'll be running up and out of the ground...I normally don't show alot of any work related stuff on this blog, but thought you all might be wondering how things are going!
We've been here for 2.5 years now and as project leader, I've been responsible for taking this project from "Opportunity Study" through "Feasibility" and now "Implementation".  We're currently in the phase of building the plant, ordering and receiving equipment, staffing and training people and in general getting ready to make tires this time next year.  Sounds like a long way away, but believe me, there is a huge amount of work still to be done!   I will startup and run the factory and continue to expand it up a % of it's full potential and that will take us up to mid 2015 when we're planning to return to the US..or our next assignment...too early to think about that yet!

Here are some photos..it's hard to see the scale, so you'll have to trust me when I say it's big!
Sara outside the perimeter fence of the "back end" of the plant under construction in Shenyang


A view over the fence at the construction site



Rod walking around the exterior of the site on the road construction part

The exterior with the tree-lined street (under construction) and the corner of the construction site...the plant is just visible in the background

Sarah on the "new road" at the front of the plant in the background, looking at the front end.
These pictures are not from "inside" the plant, and you won't see any on here inside the plant for security reasons!  I did want to give you all an idea of what we're doing here!

Other than life in the construction and plant building business, we've been enjoying life with our friends here in China and recently were invited over to their new apartment for dinner and tea.  It was a very nice evening!
Mama, Daisy and Sarah at the Zou's apartment

Papa and Rod eating at the apartment

Mama preparing tea at the apartment!
That's about it for this week!  Have a great summer you all and enjoy life whereever you are!!

Sarah