What began more thantwoyearsagowhen SLPT Global Pump Group announced it was being acquired by Millison Casting Technology was celebrated last Wednesday at the Sallisaw manufacturing plant with grandopening festivities that paid homage to the different cultures — Chinese, Native American and Small-Town Oklahoma — that partnered to make a dream reality.
Hundreds of invited guests turned out for the gala that spanned more than four hours, and included traditional Chinese musical entertainment — Lion Dance, Uyghur Dance and “Butterfly Lovers” — as well as a Native American tribal dance and performances by the Libby Starks Band.
But at the heart of the event marking the grand opening was a lineup of dignitaries who not only traced the journey that crescendoed at Wednesday’s fete, but also offered well wishes for the company’s success as Millison’s first U.S. plant. Among those lauding the start of operations were:
• Arthur Yu, chairman and CEO, who traveled from Millison’s world headquarters in Chongqing, China
• Nick DeGrands, CEO North America
• Christian Mendoza, director of operations
• Googe Ge, production management, FranklinWH
• Oklahoma Rep. Jim Olsen
• Cherokee Nation Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner
• Sallisaw Mayor Ernie Martens The journey
A manufacturing facility has operated at the business park site since the 1950s, first as BorgWarner, then as SLPT before giving way to Millison, which announced the change in July 2023 and closed on the corporate sale in June 2024. What followed was a massive expansion, refurbishing and retooling of the SLPT facility to accommodate Millison’s production needs.
In his March 2024 update to the Sallisaw Board of Commissioners, North America CEO Nick DeGrands said Millison has “a great reputation globally for quality and meeting schedules,” and that potential customers are anxious for the company to begin operations as soon as possible.
And Millison’s projected success is vital to local economic development, because the greater Millison’s prosperity, the more attractive Sallisaw becomes.
“Foundational to any kind of growth for quick-service restaurants are the things people like to see, such as jobs like Millison, jobs like [the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs] that improve that household median income, that improve that expendable income,” Sallisaw Economic Development Director George Bormann said in 2024. “People need dollars to go out and eat, they need dollars to go out and do things and have fun. We don’t want to employ a bunch of people with poverty. We want to have that wage up. That’s why jobs like Millison, ODVA, even QuikTrip, they’re very important.”
Both Millison, and its predecessor Shenglong Automotive Powertrain System Co. Ltd. (SLPT), are Chinese companies.
About Millison
Millison was founded in 2001, and has more than 5,000 employees worldwide. The company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of aluminum alloy precision die castings in the communication and automotive fields, with three major production bases in China.
Also under the Millison umbrella are domestic mold research and development, manufacturing centers, fully automatic intelligent die casting islands, high-precision machine centers, automatic refrigerant filling lines, automatic powder spraying lines and precision quality inspection systems. The company has established long-term strategic partnerships with multiple Fortune 500 companies, and its products are exported to multiple countries in the Asia Pacific, Europe and the U.S. The company is preparing to build factories in Europe and the U.S. to meet the needs of foreign customers.
Well-known customers of Millison include Tesla, Ericsson and others. In 2022, the company’s annual output value reached 3 billion yuan ($418 million U.S.). It is listed on ChiNext, a NASDAQ-style subsidiary of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Millison anticipates as many as 600 jobs in Sequoyah County, which Bormann said “will be exciting to see.”
