August 31, 2007 -- Citizen Machinery Co. will launch machine tool production in China to improve its cost-competitiveness there. Until now, the Citizen Holdings Co. subsidiary had shipped machinery tools for the Chinese market mainly from Thailand. But because of tariffs, these products ended up being high-priced.

Citizen Machinery already makes in China control panels and other electrical components for machine tools. It will now go one step further to manufacture finished products at a factory it will build in Shandong Province at a cost of 500 million yen. Output at the plant, which will come onstream in April, will initially be 50 units a month.

The company plans to slash production costs by 20% through such means as increased local procurement of bearings and other components. Citizen Machinery aims to increase sales in the Chinese machinery tool business by 80% to 3.2 billion yen in fiscal 2009.

Source: Nikkei Report
Source: Factiva