Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has revealed a plan to expand its global turbocharger production capacity to 10 million units a year.
It will start with a JPY11bn (113.3m) investment on overseas production facilities to boost its worldwide capacity from the current 5.8 million to 8.9 million by 2015.
The company will further invest in its facilities as part of its goal of achieving 10 million units production a year.
In addition to capacity expansion, the company plans to develop next generation turbochargers focusing on development, manufacturing and marketing.
The company aslo plans to develop a new concept turbocharger achieving the world's highest efficiency level and an electrically driven two-stage supercharging system (turbocharger) enabling further downsizing of petrol engines.
For these projects, MHI's wholly owned production base in Europe - Mitsubishi Turbocharger and Engine Europe - will become the supplier's second development base, offering local customers enhanced development support.
Other development initiatives include automation of installations at its production bases, particularly in Japan; developing a flexible production structure with four focal points - Japan, North America, Europe and Asia - to strengthen cost-competitiveness.
Final assembly will be done at bases close to each product's market.
Out of the total investment planned, a significant portion of the will be allocated to Mitsubishi Turbocharger Asia (MTA), its wholly owned turbocharger subsidiary in Thailand, to strengthen MTA's production structure for cartridges.
Cartridge production capacity per annum will be increased more than 2.5-fold by 2015 by expanding parts processing lines and cartridge assembly lines.
The cartridges produced at MTA will be supplied to MHI's final assembly bases in Europe, China and elsewhere. Additionally, final assembly lines will also be increased to double production capacity by 2015.
MHI also plans to increase Shanghai MHI Turbocharger's (SMTC), a consolidated subsidiary of MHI, capitalization and to expand its production lines by expanding SMTC's turbocharger production capacity roughly threefold by 2015 and fourfold in 2016.
In the US, MHI is currently establishing a turbocharger production facility in Indiana within Mitsubishi Engine North America, a wholly owned engine and turbocharger marketing subsidiary, with production starting in autumn 2014.
The US plant will be a key base in MHI's global turbocharger production structure with initial capacity of 600,000 to be doubled by 2016.
Image: Mitsubishi wants to expand global turbocharger production capacity to 10 million units. Photo courtesy: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES LTD.
