September 12, 2007 -- Japanese metal moulds maker Kyowa Seiki Co will invest approximately 500 mln Japanese yen ($4.4 mln/3.2 mln euro) in opening a plant at the site of its headquarters in Kasama, Ibaraki prefecture, eastern Japan, it was reported on September 12, 2007.
Kyowa Seiki will allocate the money for acquring a 9,900-sq m land plot where it will build a one-storey, 1,650 sq m-facility. The latter will use 80 production devices such as numerical control (NC) lathes and machining centres, about three times up in comparison with the company's existing 990-sq m plant. In order to curb investments, Kyowa Seiki will take the new plant's production equipment on lease.
The new plant, scheduled to begin operation by the end of 2008, will help Kyowa Seiki raise its output capacity by 30 pct. No comparative figures were available. The new facility will employ 50 in 2009, compared to 40 at the existing factory now. The latter will likely be leased to another company. Kyowa Seiki has decided on the move as it is hardly keeping up with production on the back of the growing metal moulds demand from car and office automation (OA) industries.
Source: Japanese News Digest
