Umeco Components of the UK is set to open a new logistics center in Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi province. Ulogistics (Xi’an) Trading, as the new company is known, aims to support both the domestic aerospace manufacturing industry and future enterprises established by Western companies.

Umeco Components CEO Jason Crabtree said here Tuesday that Xi’an Yanliang National Aviation Hi-Tech Industrial Base (CAIB) had provided invaluable support in the establishment of the new venture.

“Shaanxi is working very hard to develop its aerospace industry and we want to be part of the creation phase,” he said.

The facility should be fully operational by May and the company hopes to have several new logistics programs operational by the end of the year.

The Xi’an facility means Ulogistics will be well positioned if the proposed Airbus final assembly line is established there; in the meantime, local companies already supply both Airbus and Boeing, and 70 percent of the ARJ21 regional airliner is manufactured in the province.

Crabtree also announced that Umeco Components’ Ulogistics division is to be sole service provider to Goodrich Actuation Systems for all European C-class parts. The new contract, which runs for an initial 10 years, will treble the volume of Ulogistics existing support to the Goodrich division from its current 5,000 part numbers.