ESAB, the world's biggest producer of welding equipment, has invested 30 million U.S. dollars in a second plant in China, the world's largest welding products market.

The new plant, in the port city of Zhangjiagang, eastern Jiangsu Province, will provide 170 jobs for local people and produce 30,000 tons of solid welding wire and 10,000 tons of flux-cored wire, said Jon Templeman, ESAB's chief executive officer said in Shanghai.

ESAB Welding Products (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. is the second Chinese branch of the London-based manufacturer, which established a welding and cutting products company in Shanghai last October.

China is the world's largest welding products market, with an annual consumption accounting for a fifth of the world total, and is growing by five percent every year, according to an ESAB report.

ESAB's sales in China reached 14.9 million pounds in 2005, a year-on-year rise of 28.4 percent and it planned to open five more plants in China in next three to four years to meet market demand, said Templeman.

Founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1904 and now a major part of the British Charter Public Limited Company, ESAB employs more than 6,500 people worldwide.? It reported global sales of 720 million pounds in 2005.