On average, an experienced fitter requires about 30 minutes to produce a hinge.

But in a factory in Shanghai's Qingpu Industrial Park, the production of a hinge takes just a fraction of that time - one minute.

Here, 13 automated assembly lines operate around the clock as a team of 22 engineers work in shifts to ensure that production goes smoothly.

The 58,000-square-meter, fully automated factory is the first production base of Austrian company Blum in China. The manufacturer and distributor of fitting systems for high-quality kitchens and furniture also has factories in the United States, Brazil and Poland.

"We built this factory to get closer to the Chinese market and provide more efficient services to our Chinese customers," said Martin Blum, managing director of Blum Group.

Blum recently flown into Shanghai from Austria to visit the factory, which was constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic and put into operation in June 2022. He noted that the company went ahead with the construction of the factory despite the pandemic because it was highly confident of the prospects of the Chinese market.

"The Chinese market has always been one of our fastest growing markets," he added.

Since its entry into China in 2002, the family-owned business has grown in tandem with the domestic furnishing industry, which has developed as quickly as the Chinese economy over the past two decades, according to Maarten de Vries, Blum's Asia-Pacific regional director.

The company currently has one headquarters in Shanghai and seven branches in the country.

"We know the Chinese market is big enough to justify the building of this factory. Manufacturing our products in China has advantages - it allows us to be closer to our customers and react faster to their needs," said de Vries.

"We expect market growth to be very strong. That is why we have made this commitment to the market," he added.