The new factory will be incorporated into its North American subsidiary, Kobelco Construction Machinery, which will be reorganised to integrate production and sales.
Site preparation will begin in April ready for construction of a building and installation of the machinery and equipment with a view to starting mass production of a 20t model from January 2016.
The initial annual production capacity at the 85-acre site will be 1,800 units but the plan is to increase production as the market develops.
The target share in North America under the current medium-term management plan – which covers the period to this year - is 7% or higher. However, by taking advantage of the local production, Kobelco seeks to regaining the 10% share in North America that it used to have before it formed an alliance with CNH. The global allliance had begun in September 2001 and ended at the end of 2012 (link opens in new tab).
“Having a production site in North America will allow us not only to reduce the production lead-time of machineries for North American customers and improve capability for meeting the market needs, but also reduce operational burden on the Hiroshima Itsukaichi Factory and build an optimal group-wide production system,” said the company.
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