June 25, 2007 -- Mori Seiki Co. announced Friday that it is canceling construction of a new machine tool plant that had been planned for Thailand, opting instead to expand operations at home. The firm is canceling Thai production plans for advanced machine tools costing around 10 million yen (US$80,680) that are used in processing metal parts for automobiles and general manufacturing equipment. It had been gearing up to begin production in Thailand next April because strong sales are expected in Japan and other Asian markets, primarily Thailand itself.
But demand for these machine tools has expanded more than projected, with the manufacturer having already shipped around 1,000 units since it began making them in Japan last July. As a result, it has decided that it can boost output faster and more efficiently by expanding the domestic production structure than by going through the time-consuming process of building a new plant overseas and training personnel there.
Source: Asia Pulse
Source: Factiva
