DELL officially opened its new operations site in Chengdu yesterday to expand its presence in China, its second-largest market.

The new facility will combine manufacturing, customer services and sales for the US-based computer giant.

Located in the Chengdu High-Tech Zone, the new site covers about 30,000 square meters, roughly the size of four soccer fields. It will deploy a workforce of 1,500 to manufacture desktop computers for China, Europe and the US. Capacity is expected to reach 7 million units a year.

"The Dell Chengdu Operations Site is a milestone in Dell's "Go West" strategy and underscores our deep commitment to the China market," said Admit Midha, president of the company's Asia-Pacific and Japan operations and chairman of Dell Global Emerging Markets.

The first shipments from the new facility are scheduled to start next month. The site is designed to become a key part of Dell's global supply chain and is its first operational facility to fully deploy the company's new "end-to-end" IT solutions.

Fifteen years after first entering China, Dell is now the country's largest provider of computers, including desktops and laptops, and is also a dominant supplier of servers, with 80 percent of Chinese Internet companies as clients.

The establishment of Dell's Chengdu operations site is also expected to help attract worldwide suppliers to the city and to spur related manufacturing industries in the area, the company said.

In 2012, the company procured US$20 billion worth of goods in China, contributing to China's gross domestic product and creating about one million jobs.