Japanese manufacturer opens facility in China

Nidec Machine Tool announced that the construction of a new factory that Nidec Machine Tool (Zhejiang) Corporation, a subsidiary of the company, had been building in the city of Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, China, has been completed, and that the factory launched its full-scale operation on October 11 (Figure 1). Constructed to establish a prompt machine tool supply system to meet China’s domestic needs for autos, robots and industrial machines among others, this new, three-floor factory, whose first-phase construction started in March 2023, covers an area of approximately 66,000 sq m, including an approximately 18,000-sq-m first floor (Figure 2).

The new factory houses, among others, a machine tool assembly area, a component machining area and an office, in addition to a 600-sq-m internal showroom, the first of its kind for the company to have in China, to exhibit products made in the new factory and those produced by the Nidec Group’s machine tool companies in Japan and elsewhere.

With a high-efficiency production system in place, this new factory in China is projecting a first-year production of 4 million units, and 8 million units in 2030, while enhancing its customer-satisfying capabilities.

The main products to be produced in this new Pinghu factory will include hobbing machines (the GPH series and the GE series), gear machine tools, horizontal machining centers (the HMC series) and gear-cutting tools. These products will be made by Nidec employees who will first obtain basic machine tool-related knowledge and be trained on mechanical assembly and machining practice in Japan.

In addition, the new factory will serve as a point of contact for the company’s personnel in Japan to procure products from China.