Volvo Construction Equipment S.A. recently said it has decided to set up a wholly owned unit and a facility for manufacturing construction equipment in Shanghai .

The company, which is part of the Volvo Group, said investment in the facility totals around $15 million.

The new facility is scheduled to start operations in early 2003 and initially will be used for assembling crawler excavators, the company said in a statement. Crawler excavators are used to dig up and move earth and debris at construction sites. China has one of the biggest markets in the world for such machines, with annual sales of more than 10,000 units, Volvo Construction said.

The new facility will be able to produce "a couple of thousand" crawler excavators annually depending on customer demand, Volvo Construction Equipment President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Helsham said in the statement.

The Chinese unit, called Volvo Construction Equipment will be located on a 70,000-sq.-m. site in the Jinqiao Export Processing Zone in Shanghai ’s Pudong New Area, it said.

Volvo Construction said it has recently been granted the needed business license and approvals for the unit. The new company will initially employ around 150 people, it said.

Volvo Construction Equipment, based in Belgium , makes equipment such as wheel loaders, hydraulic excavators and articulated haulers.