Kobelco to start production in Tamil Nadu in January

CHENNAI - Japanese earthmoving equipment company Kobelco Construction Machinery will commission its 1,200 units-per-annum hydraulic excavator factory in Tamil Nadu next year.

The factory will come up at the Sri City industrial estate, around 55 km from here, in January.

“We have invested around Rs.50 crore in the plant set up on 17 acres. Based on the market, we may scale up the capacity to 3,000 units in two years’ time,” director of the company, Tadahiro Akihara, told IANS.

Kobelco had last October announced its decision to set up its Indian plant to make 20- tonne excavators.

“We were a bit late in coming to India as other major global players like Caterpillar, Hitachi, Komatsu had started their Indian operations,” Akihara said.

With a plant in India the company will be able to pass on major cost savings - import duty and ocean freight - to the customers, he added.

On the localisation of components, he said the company would continue to import engines and hydraulics while fabrication components would be sourced from India.

“This year we hope to sell around 500 units and record a turnover of around Rs.200 crore. Our market share will be around five percent.”

On the distribution network, Akihara said Kobelco would add one or two more dealers to serve northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. The company currently has 17 dealers and more than 50 service points.