Kobelco opens Thai plant

Kobelco has officially opened an excavator factory in Thailand's Rayong Province. The plant will manufacture 20 tonne class excavators for the Thai market and for export to the wider Southeast Asian area.

Some 325 people, including Kobelco president Shigeto Kotani, attended the opening ceremony on July 2. It is the second plant the company has opened in Thailand, under the control of its subsidiary Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (TKCM). IN 1996 it set up a factory in Rayong Province to manufacture welded steel structural components for excavators.

Kobelco has invested JPY 1.7 billion (US$ 16 million) in the new factory, which has a production capacity of 2400 excavators per year. Construction began last August, and the first machines rolled off the production line in April. Employment at the factory is expected to reach about 200 people by the end of this month.

The factory is located about 120 km southeast of Bangkok in Rayong Province's Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate. This provides access to a port, which will allow the excavators built at the plant to be exported throughout the region.