AAXICO Sales Co. (USA; privately held; website) and HCH China Huanchi Bearing Group Co. Ltd. (Ningbo, Zhejiang; privately held; website); 5251R9N7) announced they have formed a U.S. joint venture to import and distribute HCH bearings in the United States.

HCH manufactures a broad range of inch and metric deep groove ball bearings and tapered roller bearings, in small to medium sizes. The company is ISO9001, TS16949 and ISO14001 certified, with over 300 production lines putting out close to a million bearings every working day.

Founded in 1973 as a single state-run factory, HCH is now privately held and vertically integrated, with four plants in Ningbo. The first produces bearing steel tube. That tube then goes to another plant in Erke, where the rings are cut, the inners and outers soft turned and heat treated. From there, the races go to its Pacific and Teke factories for any other secondary operations, grinding, finishing and assembly. The Pacific plant uses automated high-end grinding and CNC equipment from Japan and only produces low-noise precision bearings. The Teke plant produces high-volume, lower quality price-sensitive bearings on Chinese equipment.

In all, HCH's says its nearly 3,000 workers produce more than 200 million bearings each year. And by volume, HCH claims to be China's largest bearing exporter; because HCH has Chinese state approval to operate as its own import / export company, the venture with AAXICO could be established directly.

With AAXICO itself based in Miami, the joint venture, HCH-AAXICO, will also be based in Miami with a warehouse and sales operation. Douglas Robbie has been named the venture's National Sales Manager.

Originally founded as an airline in 1946, AAXICO has morphed into a leading supplier to the aviation industry. The company has warehouse operations in Miami, England, Singapore, and Guangzhou; and sales offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Hamburg, Germany; Geneva, Switzerland; and Toulouse, France.