In the US, Toyota will start production at the Mississippi Plant in autumn 2011, on which Toyota put brakes in 2008. Following this trend, Toyota Auto Body and Toyota Boshoku will start production at their Mississippi Plants around the same time, which these suppliers also suspended.
In addition, Imasen is building a seat adjuster plant, Koito head lamp and mold plants, and NHK Spring a seat plant. Japanese suppliers are intensifying their activities in getting their production capacity ready for demand expansion in the US market.
Japanese suppliers build and reinforce their plants in the US
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(The Report introduces movements for about 16 months up to early August 2011.) |
Aisin AW to produce ATs for FF vehicles
Aisin AW will produce ATs for medium-size FF vehicles at the US plant (AW North Carolina, Inc.) beginning in autumn 2011. Aisin AW spent around ten billion yen to increase its production lines. It plans to produce 240K ATs per year and supply them to Toyota's local plants. AW's plant already produces the ATs for large FR vehicles at an annual production scale of 240K units. |
Aisin Chemical increases its production capacity of the Indiana Plant for damping and friction materials
Aisin Chemical added a building specializing in damping coatings to its Indiana Plant (Aisin Chemical Indiana, LLC) to double production. Aisin Chemical has produced 760 tons of the coatings per month since spring 2011. It invested about 600 million yen in the new plant. The Indiana Plant also produces friction materials for ATs. Aisin Chemical added one more line to a total of three production lines for the friction materials in October 2010. The production volume was up by 1.5 times to 900 K sheets per months. Aisin Chemical spent 150 million yen to increase the production of friction materials. |
Aichi Steel to implement a press machine to manufacture forged parts for underbodies and transmissions
Aichi Steel will introduce a used 3000-ton press machine in its US subsidiary Aichi Forge USA, Inc. by the target year of 2012. Aichi will embark on producing forged parts for underbodies and transmissions, with plans to supply the parts to the local plants of Toyota's affiliate suppliers. Aichi Forge USA is producing crank shafts. |
Imasen to build a new adjuster plant in Tennessee
Imasen will spend about 20 million dollars to build a new seat adjuster plant in Tennessee (Imasen Bucyrus Technology Inc. Tennessee Plant). This is intended to accommodate an increase of production by Japanese OEMs in the US. The new plant will start running from the middle of 2011. Imasen plans to have sales of 50 million dollars in FY 2012. This will be the second production plant for Imasen in the US following the Ohio Plant. In addition, Imasen increased its stake in Imasen Bucyrus Technology Inc. by 15 million dollars to a capital stock of 29 million dollars to build the new plant. |
Imasen will increase local purchase of pressed parts for seat adjusters as well as supply from the Philippine Plant (Imasen Philippine Manufacturing Corporation). To address a high yen, Imasen will decrease the supply from Japan from 40% to 30% or lower by the end of 2012, according to the news report in July 2011. |
NTN invests in a production line for hub bearings and constant velocity joints
NTN resumed investments in its US production lines for hub bearings and constant velocity joints in 2010. This is the first investment in North America in about two years. NTN implemented new equipment in the Elgin Plant of American NTN Bearing Mfg. Corp in Illinois. It began commercial production of new hub bearings for Ford pickup trucks. It made an investment of about 1.09 billion yen. NTN also set up a production line for constant velocity joints at its Columbus Plant in Illinois. The investment was 1.21 billion yen. |
NTN, Takao and Asahi Forge establish a venture for front-end manufacturing hub bearings
Three of NTN, Takao and Asahi Forge established a joint venture NTA Precision Axle Corporation in Illinois of the US in December 2010, which is engaged in the front-end production of hub bearings. This is a movement in anticipation of an increasing demand from American OEMs. The total investment amounted to 84 million dollars. The joint venture started lathe turning and heat treatment in June 2011. It will begin forging from February 2012. NTA will supply the parts to neighboring assembly plants of NTN. NTN will double monthly production to one million hub bearings by 2013. |
FCC plans to invest 5.06 billion yen in the US in FY2011, while setting up sales office in Detroit
To cope with an increase in orders from Ford and others, FCC plans to invest 5.06 billion yen in its US plant which produces AT clutches (as of the announcement of the 2011 earnings forecast on June 15, 2011). The breakdowns of the investment are as follows: 1.98 billion yen to augment an FCC (Adams), LLC. plant in Indiana which produces parts for Ford, 1.64 billion yen to augment an FCC(North Carolina), LLC. plant, which produces parts for Honda and Ford, and 1.43 billion yen to reinforce the production for new models in FCC(Indiana) Mfg., LLC. which produces parts for Honda. |
FCC divulged on June 15, 2011 that it accepted orders for clutch parts and disc sets for transmissions from ZF and would supply these parts to the ZF's US plant (Transmissions Greenville, LLC. in South Carolina). Clutch parts and disks will be produced at FCC (Indiana) Mfg., LLC. and FCC(North Carolina), LLC., respectively. |
In addition, FCC set up a sales office in Detroit (FCC(North America) Detroit Office) in May 2011. It aims to accept orders from American OEMs, except Ford, and its suppliers. This sales office was newly established as the sales department of its local holding company FCC(North America), Inc. |
Calsonic Kansei to produce EV inverters at its US plant
Calsonic Kansei will begin to produce EV inverters for the Nissan Leaf at its US plant (Calsonic Kansei North America, Inc. in Tennessee) by 2012. Calsonic will invest about one billion yen in the plant to build an exclusive line for the inverters. Accompanying with the start of production of the Leaf at Nissan's Smyrna Plant in Tennessee starting in 2012, Calsonic will produce the parts locally to reduce costs. |
Kasai Kogyo to deploy foam molding technology to North American Plants
Kasai Kogyo will disseminate its new foam molding technology to its North American plants starting in 2011, which has been used only in its domestic plants. Foam-molded interior parts are lighter than the current plastic parts by 20 to 30%. Kasai already deploys the new production technology in its Japanese plants. The foam molding technology reduces costs because it eliminates the need for the coating process unlike the traditional production of foamed plastic parts. Kasai aims to expand sales by applying the manufacturing technology to its North American plants. Kasai's subsidiary M-TEK Inc. has production of interior parts at five plants in Tennessee and others. |
Kinugawa Rubber to produce sealing parts for VW and Toyota at its US plant
Kinugawa Rubber received an order for auto body sealing parts from VW and Toyota. The supplier will produce the parts at its US subsidiary TEPRO, Inc. in Tennessee from 2011. This is the first order from VW for the supplier. The sealing parts will be supplied to VW for the sedan Passat and the light SUV Tiguan, and to Toyota for the new North American model Camry to be launched in autumn 2011. |
Koito to build headlamp and mold plants
Koito will build headlamp and mold plants in the US, aiming to start operations in spring 2012. Koito will invest about 2.0 billion yen in the Alabama Plant (North American Lighting, Inc. (NAL) to build a new headlamp plant. The new plant will begin with an annual production of 500 K units. Koito will increase the capacity to the one million unit-scale in the end as orders are increased. The supplier intends to respond to increasing production by Japanese OEMs and others in the Southern States. |
In addition, Koito will invest about 2 billion yen in Kentucky to build a new mold plant. NAL self-manufactures molds at around 10%. It will increase the self-manufacturing to around 25% by 2013. NAL has three plants in Illinois and one in Alabama. Koito will reduce costs including logistic expenses by building a mold plant in Kentucky between these two states. |
Sekisui Plastics to reinforce equipment for foamed plastics production, and build foam molding plant
Sekisui Plastics announced in May 2011 to reinforce the production equipment for polystyrene / polyolefin hybrid resin foam PIOCELAN, and to build a new foam molding plant. Sekisui Plastics has contracted out the foam molding to a US affiliate company. The supplier will produce molded products as per the requests from Japanese OEMs. Sekisui Plastics will establish a single straight system from production of the PIOCELAN to distribution of molded products. The product is used for bumpers and seats as a core material. |
More specifically, Sekisui Plastics will reinforce the manufacturing equipment for foamed plastics in the existing plant of Sekisui Plastics U.S.A., Inc. (Tennessee) to increase the current annual production capacity from 720 tons to slightly under 2000 tons. It will invest one million dollars in the plant. The construction is supposed to be complete in July 2011. The new foam molding plant stands in the adjacent site to the aforementioned existing plant at a cost of 2.885 million dollars. This plant was complete in May 2011 as planned. Sekisui Plastics implemented four large foam molding machines there, which are capable of producing a total of 600 tons per year. It plans to secure an affordable space to accommodate 24 foam molding machines at most. |
Daicel Chemical to double production of airbag inflators
Daicel Chemical will reinforce Daicel Safety Systems America, LLC in Kentucky to increase the production capacity of airbag inflators (gas generators) by two fold as compared to the current capacity by FY2013, according to the news report in April 2011. This is part of the plan to increase its annual global production volume to 70 million inflators (the 2010 record was 43 million units). |
Daido Metal considers re-expansion to North America and setting up local headquarters
Daido Metal in May 2011 announced that it began to study the feasibility of establishing a production subsidiary for engine shaft bearings in North America, from which Daido Metal had withdrawn before. It attempts to respond to demand expansion in the North American region. Daido Metal is considering the possible location of the subsidiary in either the US, Canada or Mexico; the details remain undecided. The supplier says that it will build a new plant in two to three years. Daido Metal decided in 2009 to dissolve and liquidate Daido Metal Bellefontaine L .L .C. in Ohio, which produced and distributed engine shaft bearings. Since the dissolution in September 2010, Daido Metal has exported the products from Japan. |
Daido Metal is planning to include establishing local headquarters in North America, Europe, Asia and China in the next medium term plan from 2013 to 2018, according to the news report in August 2011. Daido Metal will organize research functions in its North American, Asian and Chinese headquarters to realize a full-scale local production system in each area (it is already in place in the U.K.). |
Taiho Kogyo plans to double engine bearing shaft production capacity by 2015
Taiho Kogyo plans to double the engine shaft bearings production capacity of its US plant (Taiho Corporation of America in Ohio) to three million units per month by 2015 (as of December 2010). Taiho Kogyo aims to increase business with Japanese OEMs except its existing customer Toyota, because its competitor Daido Metal dissolved its locally-incorporated company in September 2010 (Daido Metal announced in May 2011 to consider establishing a production subsidiary for engine shaft bearings in North America. For more details, see the above). |
Diamond Electric to increase production of ignition coils by 50%
Diamond Electric will increase production of ignition coils at the West Virginia Plant of Diamond Electric Mfg. Corp. in the US. It will invest about 830 million yen to build a new line to increase the annual production capacity to 15 million units. It plans to start commercial production in 2012. The supplier will receive orders from Ford and produce the ignition coils locally, which are currently exported from the Tottori Plant in Japan to the US. |
Tsubakimoto Chain to increase production for Hyundai in the US
Tsubakimoto Chain received orders for engine timing chain drive systems from Hyundai according to the news report in July 2010. In the US, the Japanese company supplies the products from its local production base, Chicopee Plant in Massachusetts to the Korean OEM's Alabama plant. Tsubakimoto will set up new lines in the vacant space. It is attempting to complete the construction within FY2011. |
T. RAD to increase production of EGR coolers by 75%
T. RAD will increase production of EGR coolers for diesel engines by 75% following the recovery of the North American pickup truck markets. It will invest around 200 million yen in T. RAD North America, Inc., in Kentucky to increase the annual production of EGR coolers from 200K units to 350K units by 2015 |
Toshiba to build its first overseas onboard motor plant in the US
Toshiba will set up its first overseas onboard motor plant in Toshiba International Corporation (Texas), and start production from January 2012. Following the conclusion of the supply contract between Toshiba and Ford with respect to the parts for HEV/PHEV, which Ford will commercially produce from 2012, Toshiba will reinforce the supply structure for the US markets. It will also supply onboard inverters to Ford, which will be produced at the Mie Plant in Japan. |
Topre to invest 6.5 billion yen in the US plant to reinforce the facilities
Topre announced in July 2011 to invest 6.5 billion yen in the US Plant (Topre America Corporation in Alabama) which produces pressed parts and molds, and build out the plant. The expansion of the plant will be 13,000 square meters to introduce 2500-ton presses, which will start running in September 2012. Reportedly, it will implement the die-quench method on the part of the new production line. The die-quench method enables the production of high-strength pressed parts, and allows the supplier to meet the needs for lighter and stronger auto bodies. In Japan, Topre has implemented the test line for the die-quench method in the Sagami Plant. |
Toyota Auto Body's new Mississippi parts plant to go live in autumn 2011
Toyota Auto Body will start the operation of the new Mississippi parts plant (Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi Inc.) in autumn 2011 to produce pressed parts, welded parts and plastics parts. This will be the first plant for Toyota Auto Body in the US. It will supply the products for the Corolla which is produced by Toyota at the Mississippi Plant. |
When Toyota Auto Body announced the construction of the new plant in July 2007, the supplier planned to produce the parts for the SUV Highlander starting in 2010. As the production model was changed, some minor changes will be needed on molds and tools. Fortunately, there is no need for the supplier to change the general-purpose equipment, the investment of 2.2 billion yen and the number of employees-about 260-as planned before. |
Toyota Boshoku to start operations at new Mississippi Plant in autumn 2011
Toyota Boshoku will start operations at the new Mississippi Plant of Toyota Boshoku Mississippi, LLC. in autumn 2011. Toyota Boshoku will produce seats and door trims for the Corolla which Toyota produces at the Mississippi Plant. The annual production will be 150K units on a regular work hour basis. |
When Toyota Boshoku announced in September 2007 the construction of a new plant, the production would have started by 2010. The products to be supplied were changed from those for the Toyota SUV Highlander with three-row seats to the Corolla with two-row seats. Consequently, Toyota Boshoku had to reduce the planned number of employees from 500 to 250, and also the capital from 53 million dollars to 49 million dollars. |
Nisshinbo Brake to increase production of brake pads
Nisshinbo Brake will begin to increase the production of brake pads at its US Plant (NAMI - Nisshinbo Automotive Manufacturing, Inc. in Georgia) within 2011. It will invest about 600 million yen to implement processing equipment to increase the production by around 10%. Nisshinbo Brake will, thereby, respond to demand expansion in the US market, including orders from the Detroit Three. |
Nittan Valve introduces the automatic production line at the US plant
Nittan Valve implemented an automatic production line (NGV line) at its US plant of U.S. Engine Valve (Partnership) in South Carolina (which is in place as of March 2011). The NGV line automatically cuts the materials of engine valves, forges, finishes and inspects the products. This line needs half of the space and the number of operators compared to the existing line. The supplier is attempting to cut costs by 20% compared with the existing line. In Japan, Nittan Valve has implemented the NGV line at the Sanyo Plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture. |
NHK Spring builds a new seat plant and drive motor parts plant
NHK Spring built the second seat factory, Murfreesboro Plant (NSA - NHK Seating of America, Inc.) in Tennessee. It is complete as of July 2011. NHK Spring spent about 31 million dollars. The supplier will reinforce the supply capacity for Nissan, attempting to boost NSA's sales by around 1.5 times by 2012. The existing US seat plant in Frankfort, Michigan, produces seats and seat parts mostly for Toyota and FHI. |
In addition, NHK Spring will build a new drive motor core plant on the premises of NHK of America Suspension Components Inc. in Kentucky, which produces coil springs (as announced in December 2010). It will invest about 37 million dollars in the plant, which is the first production plant in its drive motor core business. Anticipating expansion of EV/HEV markets in North America, NHK Spring will expand production. The plant will start production within FY2011. |
Nifco to have local production of fuel tank valves
Nifco plans to commercially produce fuel tank valves locally at its US subsidiary, Nifco America Corporation in Ohio after 2011. Nifco has had pilot production since summer 2010. Nifco has produced fuel tank valves mainly in Japan, because each OEM sets strict quality standards on them. Additionally, Nifco invested about 550 million yen in Nifco America to set up fuel system equipment and forming equipment in the year ended in March 2011. |
Hayashi Telempu to run new Alabama Plant in autumn 2011 and have R&D center in Michigan
Hayashi Telempu will run the new plant (Alabama Plant of AMTEX Inc.) in autumn 2011 to produce interior parts such as floor carpets in the State of Alabama. Hayashi Telempu will supply the products to the Toyota Mississippi Plant which will go live this autumn as well. The site area is 56,000 square meters and the building area is 4,800 square meters. Hayashi Telempu obtained a larger plant site, eyeing future expansion of the plant if it receives orders from the other OEMs. |
Hayashi Telempu set out an R&D center for interior parts (Hayashi of America Detroit Develop Center) in Michigan in September 2010. The R&D center will start with ten employees, and the number will be increased gradually. The supplier will consolidate the designing center in Michigan and its designing and testing functions dispersed in the plants around the country to establish a locally-integrated structure from designing through to evaluation. |
Hitachi Cable to supply power harnesses to GM, to be commercially produced at its US plant
Hitachi Cable will supply power harnesses to connect drive motors, batteries and inverters for GM's PHEV Volt according to a news report in May 2010. The supplier expects to commercially produce the products at its US plant (Hitachi Cable Automotive Products USA, Inc. in Indiana). |
Bridgestone to increase production of tires for passenger cars and light trucks by 20%
Bridgestone in July 2011 announced the investment of 135 million dollars in the South Carolina Aiken Plant in the US to increase production of tires for passenger cars and light trucks by 20%. It will increase the daily production capacity from 25,200 tires as of July 2011 to 30,000 tires. The tire supplier will start building a new plant building with 81,000 square meters within 2011. It plans to begin operating the plant from the first quarter of 2013. |
Press Kogyo produces panel parts for Nissan LCVs at its Mississippi Plant
Press Kogyo received new orders for panel parts for LCVs, which Nissan produces and sells in the US. The supplier has produced the panel parts at its Mississippi Plant under PK U.S.A., Inc. and has supplied them to Nissan since September 2010. Press Kogyo expects to have annual sales of 600 million yen in this business. In addition, Press Kogyo began production of compact components for the Toyota Highlander at its Indiana Plant under PK U.S.A., Inc., according to the news report in June 2010. |
Honda Elesys reinforced electric control unit line
Honda Elesys reinforced the production line for electric control units in its US subsidiary Elesys North America inc. in Georgia in 2010. Seeing that demand for electric power steering (EPS) will grow in overseas markets due to its feature to improve fuel economy, Honda Elesys is improving its overseas capabilities of supplying electric control units for the EPS. |
Mitsui Chemicals to increase production of polypropylene in North America
Mitsui Chemicals and Prime Polymer (in which Mitsui Chemical takes a 65% stake) announced in July 2011 to increase production of polypropylene auto materials in the US and Mexico. Mitsui Chemicals will add production lines to Advanced Composites Inc. which has the plants in Ohio and Tennessee, to boost the annual production capacity from 212K tons to 226K tons. The lines will begin running in the first quarter of 2012. |
MHI to resume production of compressors in autumn 2011
MHI will resume production of compressors at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Climate Control Inc. (MCC) in Indiana from autumn 2011. The company stopped its production in July 2009, but will resume it due to acceptance of a major order. |
In addition, MHI has a separate plan for capital investment in MCC to produce electric compressors, which have been made mainly in Japan, for EVs and HEVs (details are unknown). MHI plans to increase company-wide annual sales of electric compressors by about 30 times more than the 2009 level to 1.3 million units by FY2018. |
Unipres considering branch plant for US Honda
Unipres, an affiliate of Nissan, plans to expand sales for Honda. It sold products to Honda worth about 2.9 billion yen (around 1.3% of total sales) in FY 2010, of which sales of about 1.2 billion yen came from the business with US Honda. Unipres plans to expand business with Honda to 4.8 billion yen by FY2013, of which 1.8 billion yen will be from the business with US Honda. For this purpose, Unipres is considering three places to build a branch plant near Honda Plants in North America. The supplier intends to assemble auto body frames there by transporting the necessary parts from its local plants (according to a news report in July 2011). |
Yuhara Manufacturing to expand production capacity of fuel injection parts by 25%
Yuhara Manufacturing will expand the monthly production capacity of its US Plant, Yuhara Manufacturing USA Inc. in Georgia for fuel injection-related parts by 25% to 500K units. It invested about 45 million yen and implemented the facilities in April 2011. |
Yokohama Rubber to increase annual production in the US by 10% to 6.2 million passenger car tires
Yokohama Rubber will reinforce its US production capabilities by 10% to 6.2 million passenger car tires. The tire supplier will invest 13 million dollars in the Salem Plant of its local subsidiary Yokohama Tire Corporation in Virginia to increase the annual production capacity by the end of 2011. Yokohama Rubber is attempting to solve the production bottleneck to catch up with strong tire sales in North America. |
Source: PR materials of the above companies, and news reports