Kobelco to build crawler cranes in India

Japanese crane manufacturer Kobelco Cranes will build crawler cranes in India.

Investment by the wholly owned subsidiary of Kobe Steel will be Yen 1.2 billion / Rupee 600 million (US$13 million) to construct a plant scheduled to begin production in October 2011. Kobelco Cranes India Pvt. Ltd. (KCI), a wholly owned subsidiary, will be established in August 2010 and there will be about 70 employees.

Kobelco says that the Indian market for crawler cranes, which reached about 200 units in 2009, will grow to 700 units in the next five years on the back of strong infrastructure investment. The new Indian plant will be Kobelco's first overseas production facility. The manufacturer said it will be the world's first major foreign mobile crane manufacturer to build crawlers in India. Crawlers will be built between 90 and 250 tonnes capacity.

The 6,900 square metre factory will be adjacent to the new Kobelco Construction Machinery hydraulic excavator plant in the Sri City Special Economic Zone 75 km north of Chennai (Madras) in the south east of the country. The proximity of the plants will allow sharing of distribution and information.

In April 2010 Kobe Steel Group launched a Medium- to Long-term Business Vision in which it said it would develop its overseas business. Overseas sales are anticipated to increase from 33% to around 50%. An important initiative is to establish a presence in large markets, especially China and India, Kobelco said.

Kobelco claims about 50% share of its domestic market which would make it Japan's top manufacturer of crawler cranes. It estimates its share of the global market at 17%.