Japan's Machinery Industry Faces an Uncertain Time

As Japan’s largest plastics show kicked off Oct. 25, the country’s machinery industry faces an uncertain time, with its global production up but companies under pressure to move manufacturing to low-cost spots. Japanese machinery makers at the International Plastic Fair in Tokyo said they were increasingly setting up or expanding production in China, India and Southeast Asia, in part to escape a strong yen and be more cost-competitive globally. The show remains a place where the Japanese unveil their latest designs -- and their equipment is still some of the world’s top plastics technology -- but the IPF itself this year is 25 percent smaller, with 750 firms exhibiting compared with almost 1,000 at the last edition, in 2008. “We have recovered from the Lehman shock [the 2008 financial crisis that began in the United States] but many other problems are emerging, like the exchange rate problem,” said Hozumi Yoda, chairman of the Tokyo-based Association of Japan Plastics Machinery, which sponsors IPF. “Maybe these problems are much harder for Japanese companies because we can’t see the exit.” Still, total production of injection molding machines will likely rise this year, AJPM estimates. Japan’s injection molding industry will make about 14,500 machines this year, with most of the growth coming from its production in China, which is likely to double from 1,200 machines last year to 2,400 this year, said Yoda, who is also president of Nagano-based injection press maker Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd. AJPM statistics show that Japanese companies produced 9,318 machines in their domestic factories through the end of September, on pace for 12,000 machines for the year, which would be roughly the same as their total made in Japan in 2010, when they recovered from a dismal 2009 that saw production plummet to about 5,000 units. The association does not keep official statistics on Chinese production but Yoda estimated that production is growing substantially there, with several firms adding factories in the last year. Companies are also stepping up investment in other Asian countries, as a hedge against rising costs in China, to avoid too much concentration there and to tap other regional markets. Sodick Plustech Co. Ltd., for example, opened a factory in Thailand earlier this year to make a less expensive version of its general purpose machines, said Shigeru Fujimaki, executive managing director of the Ishikawa-based firm. Sodick last year also opened an injection press factory in China, in Xiamen, Fujian Province, which at the time was its first plastics machinery investment outside of its Japanese base. The company in Japan produces high-end machines for markets such as liquid silicone rubber medical manufacturing but sees opportunities leveraging its skills to make a quality, lower-cost machine, Fujimaki said. “Unfortunately we don’t have standard affordable products pricewise -- that is why we started production in Thailand and China,” he said. The current serious flooding in Thailand, however, has shut down production at its factory on the outskirts of Bangkok, as parts and workers cannot get in, and it could take several months to restart production, he said. Yoda said his own company, Nissei, is moving ahead with plans announced late last year to set up a factory in the western part of Asia, possibly in India or surrounding countries, to serve the markets there. He predicted other Japanese firms would now look more seriously at setting up plastic machinery production elsewhere in Asia. “The production in Japan will move to other countries,” Yoda said. “Maybe Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, or India.” He said there are four main factors hurting the industry now: the March nuclear crisis and its long-term impact of raising electricity prices; the strong yen, up 20 percent against the U.S. dollar in the last two years; tightening of lending in China, whose growth fueled the Japanese industry the last two years; and Japan’s generally sluggish economy. “It should be quite difficult,” Yoda said. One Japanese machinery maker with manufacturing in India since 1999, blow molding machinery maker Nissei ASB Machine Co. Ltd., is doubling the size of its factory in Mumbai, as it also announced earlier this year. But the firm is now considering taking it a step further and using India as a base to expand into other businesses, using the low-cost machining there to make parts or build molds for other types of plastics equipment or related sectors, said Kota Aoki, president and CEO of the Nagano-based firm. “Growing in Japanese manufacturing is now difficult because of the yen,” Aoki said. “We can’t grow as planned.” Nissei ASB said that a skilled machine setter in India makes 10 percent of what the same job in Japan would pay, and they hope to use that advantage and their experience in India. Source: plasticsnews.com