With an investment of 1 billion yuan ($139.6 million), United States-based dental company Envista Holdings Corp signed an investment agreement with the government of Suzhou New District in Suzhou, Jiangsu province recently, kicking off its new manufacturing base project in China.

Entering the world's second-largest economy two decades ago, Envista has invested and established industrial plants in the country, manufacturing invisible aligners for both domestic and international markets.

The new Suzhou plant will introduce production lines for Nobel Biocare implants and Ormco orthodontic brackets, which are both high-end and mainstream products in the international market in these two fields respectively, among others for the first time to China.

Scheduled to commence production in three years, the facility will be almost the same size as the company's production base in the US, the company's largest market worldwide.

"China is our second-largest market today following consecutive years of growth, and we certainly expect the market to continue to thrive driven by many factors, including an aging population, a rising number of people being aware of dental treatment, and a growing number of clinicians," said Filippo Impieri, global senior vice-president of emerging markets for Envista.

He added that China is phenomenal from an academic and educational standpoint in this field, and more than half of the world's new dentists nowadays are graduating in China, India and Brazil.

Citing research in terms of adoption for dental care, for instance, implants in China versus a European market, Impieri said there will be opportunities in China to double or triple the volume of dental implants.

"The significant increase in adoption in China over the last few years was just a beginning, and policies, such as volume-based procurement, are making dental implants and other oral care more affordable to patients, which will also trigger growth in volume," said Impieri.

Stefan Nilsson, global president of Nobel Biocare, which specializes in premium dental implants within the corporation, said the new investment will make China the third country to manufacture such products after Sweden and the US.

He said the products manufactured at the Suzhou base will be supplied for China to start with. "That will allow China to be one of the three legs for Nobel Biocare to stand on," said Nilsson.

The localized production of Nobel Biocare implants shows an integration of the brand's innovative achievements and Chinese patients' needs, said the company. It said that based on that, it will further promote the deep integration of industry, academia, research, and education efforts in the domestic dental implant ecosystem.

Tang Xiaodong, vice-mayor of Suzhou, said the city is unswervingly expanding high-standard opening-up, continuing to deepen international cooperation, striving to create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment, and joining hands with global enterprises to share the vast opportunities in the China market.

"We welcome Envista to continue to invest in Suzhou and Suzhou New District, continue to expand the industrial layout and introduce new projects and new production lines, and form more landmark cooperation results," he said.

Statistics by Chyxx.com, a Beijing-based industry research and consulting network, showed that annual demand for dental implants in China leaped from 1.73 million units in 2017 to 9.64 million units in 2023.

The figure exceeded 10 million last year, making China one of the fastest-growing dental implant markets worldwide.