Kobelco, crawler crane, india--Kobelco to build crawlers in India

Kobelco, saying it anticipates Indian crawler crane demand to more than triple over five years, has announced that it will invest ¥1.2bn ($13.84m) in building a new crawler plant in the country.

Kobelco parent Kobe Steel says the Indian crawler crane market reached about 200 units in 2009; over the next five years, the Japanese firm anticipates it will reach 700 units, an increase of around 250%.

The new plant, which is projected to open in October 2011, is being built in the Sri City Special Economic Zone, about 75km north of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, southern India. It is next to a new hydraulic excavator plant being built by sister company Kobelco Construction Machinery, which will begin production in January 2011.

The crawler plant is Kobelco's first outside of Japan; it is also, Kobelco says, the first specialist crawler plant built in India by any major foreign crane manufacturer. It will build cranes with capacities from 90t–250t.

Kobelco claims a 50% market share in Japan, and around 17% around the world. Announcing the investment, the company noted that demand for crawlers had bottomed out in late 2008, but has begun to pick up again. While demand from established markets in Japan, the US and Europe had accounted for a 40% share of its business, this has fallen to a 20% share recently. At the same time, it has seen rapid increases in demand from India, China, and other emerging economies.

The company has said it plans to increase its overseas sales to around half of its business, from around a third today. As part of the plan, the new India plant will be operated by a new division, Kobelco Cranes India, which will handle manufacturing and distribution.

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