India Metal One Steel Plate Processing Pvt. Ltd.
Metal One Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Naoto Matsuoka) and Keiyo Blanking Kogyo Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Ichihara-shi, Chiba Prefecture; President: Noriyuki Sato) established India Metal One Steel Plate Processing Private Limited, a steel plate melt-cutting and processing joint venture, in April 2011. The new company is located in Sri City industrial estate (approximately 70 kilometers north of Chennai) in the suburbs of Tada, Andhra Pradesh, India. Plant building construction began on September 1, and full operation is scheduled to begin in August 2012.
Metal One and Keiyo Blanking Kogyo currently have two joint venture plate processing centers in China, namely, Hangzhou Metal One Steel Plates Processing Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Metal One Steel Plates Processing Co., Ltd. This latest joint venture is their first plate processing operation in India.
A total investment of 1.75 billion rupees (approximately ¥3.2 billion) is planned, with a capitalization of 1.227 billion rupees (around ¥2.2 billion). Metal One has a 60% stake, and Keiyo Blanking Kogyo owns 40%. Metal One’s Takeshi Mitsui has been named managing director, and Keiyo Blanking Kogyo’s Yoshiaki Sato will serve as vice managing director.
processing capacity at launch time will be 2,000 tonnes per month. The venture will supply such products as melt-cut parts, secondary processing products, and composite parts, primarily for Caterpillar Inc. and other construction machinery manufacturers.
India plans to invest approximately $1 trillion in infrastructure construction under its 12th five-year plan (for the period from 2012 to 2016), and accelerating demand for plates for resource development, infrastructure provision, and energy-related uses is anticipated from here on out.
With this sort of environment in mind, the new company will strive to capture domestic demand in growing India by putting to work the plate melt-cutting, processing, and composite-parts production expertise and experience that the Metal One Group has developed in Japan and China up to now.