July 31, 2007 -- Japan's Tsubaki Nakashima Co. plans to spend about 2 billion yen (US$17 million) to build a factory in China to make steel balls for automotive bearings. The new facility in Chongqing is slated to be placed in service in April 2008 and will be the company's second production site in China, joining one near Shanghai. Tsubaki Nakashima will install state-of-the-art equipment from Japan. The plant will have an integrated production structure covering everything from forming steel balls from steel materials to polishing the balls. The facility will also take over ball polishing currently outsourced by the Shanghai plant. Steel balls produced at the new location will be supplied to local bearing manufacturers and Japanese parts producers with locations in China. The new plant is expected to generate 3 billion yen in sales in fiscal year 2011. The company is looking to make its overseas operations more efficient by concentrating resources in China and other parts of Asia, where automobile production is soaring, while at the same time looking at closing some plants in the U.S. and Europe.
Source: Asia Pulse
Source: Factiva
