Filtermist MD sees huge potential in Asia market

James Stansfield, Managing Director, Filtermist International

Filtermist has established itself as a world leader in the manufacture of oil mist collectors for forty years. James STANSFIELD, Managing Director of Filtermist International talked with International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) about their products and how the company is able to meet the demand of its market in Asia.

Mr. STANSFIELD has also provided an overview of market trends and recent developments
affecting the sector in the Asian region.

IMNA: Kindly give a brief history of Filtermist in Asia

STANSFIELD: Filtermist entered the Asia market very early on in the company’s Development.

Japan was one of the original countries we approached because of the high number of machine tools produced, and we had the advantage of contacts that we made through our distributors in Europe and USA. Dynex, a part of the Dynamic Tools organisation, continues to sell our products in Japan to this day.

Perhaps the defining moments of our push in Asia were the development of the joint venture (JV) initiative in India in 1997, followed by the JV in Singapore in 2005.

Although the Indian JV still retains our name, Span Filtermist, they have since been
bought out by the Indian partners. Since then they have consistently grown the business and have had great success with large contracts at several different automotive plants.

In China, we developed a relationship with our distributor, En Creative, through contacts at the UK trade organisation, the MTA (Machine Technology Association) in the early nineties, and the business has grown very quickly over the years.

Taiwan business has grown well in recent years, mainly in line with the growth in their machine tool industry. Around 80% of the units our distributor Easton Engineering, sell into Taiwan are sold on to machine tool manufacturers, who in turn often export the products to the West or into China.
 
There is a similar pattern in South Korea which has been a more recent success story. This distributor relationship was garnered via our Singapore office, though they now deal directly with the UK. The distributor, Mato Korea is run by a very dynamic and energetic owner who has been making inroads into the Korean machine tool market and continues to take market share from the local competition.

The JV in Singapore, Filtermist Asia-Pacific (FAP) has also developed strong ties with key machine tool manufacturers in the ASEAN region, especially in Singapore and Malaysia. Much of this business was gained through the contacts of FAP Managing Director, Jim How, who previously sold Filtermist and Brother Machine Tools for our then Singapore distributor Lionapex.
 
IMNA: Tell us about the oil mist collector products that you make.

STANSFIELD: The Filtermist FX and S series are the latest generation of our world leading oil mist extraction unit.

Developed through 40 years of global experience and the expertise of internationally  recognised  centres of engineering excellence, Filtermist provides the most advanced and effective system available for the removal of oil mist.

Units are designed to operate at a variety of low and high voltages and at 50Hz or 60Hz. This allows each filter to cover an extremely wide range of applications throughout the World as standard.

The units are available in mild steel or 304 grade stainless steel, and as such are used in a wide range of manufacturing, engineering and processing applications. These includAdidas Yeezy