GKN Wheels Liuzhou, part of GKN Wheels - a global expert in the design, manufacture and testing of large off-highway wheels, has received SANY's prestigious 'Supplier Excellence' award at its recent Supplier of the Year 2012 Awards ceremony.

SANY Group Harbour Crane Division is one of the world's leading engineering machinery companies. GKN Wheels Liuzhou in southern China supplies a wide range of wheels to SANY for its port machinery fleet including reach stackers, heavy fork lift trucks and empty container handlers.

The award recognises GKN Wheels' excellence in areas including product capacity, on-time delivery and product quality, as well as brand image, operation systems and after-sales service.

Commenting, Samuel Ning, General Manager, said: "We are very proud to receive this award which recognises GKN Wheels' technical strength, continued focus on quality and our ability to be flexible and adapt quickly to our customer's changing needs.

"At a time when GKN Wheels Liuzhou is expanding its product range, the award marks the continuation of a strong relationship with SANY and the customer's trust in our factory and support team here in Liuzhou."

GKN Wheels Liuzhou is a world-class facility for the production of off-highway wheels which serves the global market for mining and construction equipment, including harbour cranes and fork lift trucks, ranging up to 63". Owned by GKN Wheels, more than £3 million has recently been invested to allow production capacity to Increase.

Multi-piece manufacturing and the development of a state-of-the-art cold forming line enables a wider product range to be manufactured to continue to meet the needs of the international heavy construction equipment and mining sectors.

GKN Wheels Liuzhou is part of the Land Systems Division of GKN which has additional manufacturing bases in Denmark, Italy, the UK and the USA. World class test centres in the USA and Italy test wheel designs for off-highway machinery manufacturers used in the mining, construction, agricultural and material handling sectors.

GKN Wheels has further expanded its footprint in China with the recent signing of a new joint venture. The agreement with Chinese partner Lianyungang Huading Wheel Co., Ltd sees GKN Wheels taking a 65 per cent majority share in its agricultural tractor wheel production facility in Donghai, near the city of Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province in Northern China. Lianyungang GKN Huading Wheels Co. Ltd produces wheels for agricultural equipment customers in China and Asia Pacific.