Aisin Group (China) 2010

Business Highlights

<Highlights by segment>

Drivetrain systems

<Automatic Transmissions(ATs)>
-Aisin AW Co., Ltd. has announced that it will establish a new, wholly owned subsidiary in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China to manufacture automatic transmissions for front-wheel-drive vehicles. The plant is scheduled to commence full-scale production around the middle of 2013 with the capacity to manufacture 240,000 transmissions per year. The facility will serve as Aisin AW's second production foothold in China, and third outside Japan. Through this expansion, Aisin AW intends to meet increased requirements from Toyota Motor Corporation and other major customers, which are stepping up production in the country. Total investment in the project is likely to reach 18 billion yen. The new company, AW Suzhou Automotive Parts Co., Ltd., will be formed in April 2011 with a registered capital of 100 million US dollars (approximately 8.3 billion yen.) The plant will have a building area of around 45,000 square meters on 103,000 square meters of land. It will hire about 600 employees to manufacture step automatic transmissions for front-wheel-drive vehicles. The new operations will allow Aisin AW to produce 360,000 automatic transmissions per year in China, including those for rear-wheel-drive vehicles it already makes at its existing plant in Tianjing. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on January 28, 2011)

Brake systems

-Aisin Chemical Co., Ltd. , a supplier of chemicals and friction materials in the Aisin Seiki Group, announced that it had established a subsidiary in China for production of disc brake pads, its third overseas production facility following in the U.S. and Thailand. The new China plant is targeting to generate 1.6 billion yen in sales in 2015 primarily from products that will be delivered finally to Toyota's local joint venture plant with its brake pad integrated in the brake system at a local plant in Tianjin of a brake system supplier Advics. The local subsidiary "Tangshan Aisin Chemical Co., Ltd.," which is capitalized at 600 million yen, was established in July with an investment of 60 percent by Aisin Chemical, 20 percent by Aisin Seiki and 20 percent by Advics. Production equipment will be installed at the local plant of Aisin Seiki located in Tangshan, Hebei Province. Production will start on one production line by May 2011. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on Aug. 20, 2010)

-Advics Co., Ltd., announced that it will establish two new subsidiaries in China. The two companies are Advics China Co., Ltd., which will handle engineering and sales operations; and Advics Fuzhou Automobile Parts Co., Ltd., which will conduct production operations. Advics China will be headquartered in Chanzhou, Jiangsu Province. It will be formed in May 2011 with a registered capital of 2 million US dollars (approximately 170 million yen), which will be fully provided by Advics. Advics Fuzhou Automobile Parts, on the other hand, will be established in February 2011 with a registered capital of 31 million US dollars (approximately 2.6 billion yen), of which 80 percent will be invested by Advics and the remaining by Lioho Machine Works, Ltd., a Taiwan-based auto parts supplier. Its production facility will be constructed in Fuzhou, Fujian Province with a plan to begin operations in April 2013. Advics is planning to spend 3.5 billion yen in the initial phase, expecting to generate sales of 175 million US dollars (approximately 15 billion yen) in fiscal year 2017. Advics already has two plants in China, which manufacture brake boosters, master cylinders, and corner modules. The new Fuzhou facility will produce parts used in brake control systems such as anti-lock brake systems and electronic stability control systems mainly for Japanese automakers. The subsidiary will also target local Chinese manufacturers and European companies in order to expand sales. Advics' sales in China, which now reach around 40 billion yen, are intended to be increased to 50 to 60 billion yen by fiscal year 2017. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on Dec. 28, 2010)

Body parts

Awards
-Aisin Seiki Foshan Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. received the Excellent Quality Award for three consecutive years from 2007 to 2009 from Guangzhou Toyota. (From a press release, on 24 May, 2010)