Ferretti Group is set to launch its first shipyard in China, in a bid to tap the world's fastest-growing multi-millionaire pool.

Ferretti Group is set to launch its first assembly plant in China, in a bid to tap the world's fastest-growing multi-millionaire pool. 

The new facility in Qingdao, Shandong province, will customise
vessels for the local market, executives said at a press conference announcing the development, held in Beijing this week.

The Italian superyacht maker, whose brands include Riva, Ferretti,
Pershing and Bertram, was recently acquired by Chinese bulldozer
maker, Shandong Heavy Industry Group-Weichai Group. The group took 75
per cent majority ownership in January, bringing the troubled
yacht-maker's debts down  to €116 million (US$144 million) from €760
million following a restructuring,

Since the sale, Ferretti Group has been making aggressive plans to boost
sales in emerging markets led by China, Brazil and Russia, the report
said, as the Euro-zone debt crisis dampens appetite in Europe.

The new ownership has brought "new opportunities to the company (and) Weichai Group's influence in the industry and its financial
strengths will spur Ferretti's strategy," Ferretti chief executive officer Ferruccio Rossi was quoted as saying.

In his speech at the press conference, Tan Xuguang, chairman of Shandong
Heavy Industry Group and chairman of the board of Ferretti, said that
Weichai Group's strategic restructuring of Ferretti group would realize
three key goals: Firstly, from being a local Chinese brand Weichai Group
would leap forward to become international; Secondly, the Group has
extended its ground engine manufacturing to encompass maritime engine
manufacturing; Thirdly, Weichai Group would go beyond managing a local
team to being involved in global operations.

He added that China has evolved from being a "country of
production" to becoming a "country of consumption". In the industrial
development cycle, a GDP model driven solely by investment will be
replaced by one driven by both investment and consumption. "With an
ever-expanding Chinese middle and upper class, there will be more
consumers and higher consumption, which is certain to boost the
development of yacht market in China," he said.

The China Association of National Shipbuilding Industry estimates that by 2020, China's yacht market will be worth RMB 50 billion. In China, the population of individuals with more than US$30million of
liquid assets grew by a fifth last year, according to Boston Consulting
Group.