The headquarters will serve the company's Asia-Pacific operations. The technical center is equipped with dynamometers as well as test cells for vehicles and brakes.

The 9,000-square-meter complex "will enable us to increase technical support to powertrain and vehicle customers," said CEO Jose Maria Alapont in a statement.

The Shanghai facility has 300 employees. It is one of Federal-Mogul's 18 global engineering centers. Federal-Mogul also has two factories each in Shanghai, Qingdao and Wuhan as well as plants in Anqing and Nanchang. 

The company, based in Southfield, Michigan, manufactures pistons and rings, valve seats and guides, bearings, seals, head gaskets, ignitions, brake components and chassis parts.

Said Alapont: "China is and will continue to be a strategic market for the automotive industry and for Federal-Mogul."