Company officials, including SHG President Yabo Zhang, made the announcement last Thursday in Springdale during an event attended by local and state representatives, company employees and staff.

Sanhua will continue to operate the company as ATI, with plans to expand its North America HVACR business footprint. The ATI acquisition is much like the 2013 Sanhua purchase of R-Squared Puckett, a Mississippi-based manufacturer of precision aluminium heat exchange components. R-Squared has continued to operate and expand from its Puckett base since being acquired by Sanhua.

ATI president, Chuck Lewis, said: “While we share many common customers, taking ATI products and marrying them with Sanhua, we will be able to give the market products they have not yet seen.

“If you looked inside an air-conditioning unit, all the tubing that carries refrigerant to and from the unit is made by us. The valves that control the movement of the refrigerant comes from Sanhua.”

ATI has two facilities in Springdale and a third in Monterey, Mexico. The addition of more than 400 ATI employees will bring the Sanhua North America headcount to more than 700.

Sanhua employs more than 17,000 people worldwide with 22 sales offices and 14 manufacturing locations, including its North America facilities in Mississippi, Texas and Mexico.