Kobelco Construction Machinery, a group company of Kobe Steel, on Thursday inaugurated its first manufacturing plant in India for producing hydraulic excavators.
The plant, located at the multi-product special economic zone along with a domestic tariff zone of Sri City near Tada on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border, was inaugurated by Shigeto Kotani, President, Kobelco Construction Machinery, Japan.
Addressing presspersons here Hiroyuki Hosomi, Director, Kobelco International, said the plant would be a part of the existing Kobelco Construction Equipment India (KCEI).
The initial capacity would be 1,200 units annually and it would produce 20-tonne class machines, for which the demand was the highest in India, he said. According to Vikram Sharma, Managing Director and CEO of the Indian operations, the investment on this project would be Rs. 100 crore in the first phase, and the capacity would be doubled to 2,400 excavators in the second phase.
According to Ravindra Sannareddy, Managing Director, there were 20 companies operating at present at Sri City and 30 more companies were implementing their projects. In addition country specific enclaves were specially created to offer specific and exclusive facilities to companies from different countries. Already a special Japanese enclave spread over 300 acres to meet the requirement of Japanese companies setting up facilities in the area had been created, he said.
The zone was providing employment opportunities to over 5,000 people directly and indirectly, Mr. Ravindra Sannareddy said.
