September 5, 2007 -- Japanese Nippon Roballo Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of German large-diameter anti-friction bearings maker Rothe Erde GmbH, announced on September 4, 2007 that it would build a plant in Kitakyushu, southern Japan, with a total investment of approximately 4.5 bln Japanese yen ($38.8 mln/28.6 mln euro).
The future plant will be located on a 23,000-sq m land plot at a seaside industrial park and will have a total floor space of 15,000 sq m. It will manufacture large-scale bearings for use in wind power generators and will supply production to Japanese companies. The facility is scheduled to begin operation in October 2008 with a workforce of 20. With the new opening, Nippon Roballo will almost triple to 9,000 tonnes its annual output capacity of such bearings so as to meet the growing wind power equipment demand in Europe, the United States, China and India.
Tokyo-based Nippon Roballo ( www.roballo.co.jp ) currently operates a 3,200 tonnes/year plant for such bearings, also in Kitakyushu. The company runs one more plant, in Hakui, Ishikawa prefecture, central Japan. Nippon Roballo employs 119 and booked sales of some 6.3 bln yen ($54.4 mln/40 mln euro) for fiscal 2005/2006, ended September 2006. Rothe Erde is a unit of German industrial concern ThyssenKrupp AG.
Source: Japanese News Digest
