Nippon Piston invests in Indian car and motorcycle market
Nippon Piston Ring, Tokyo, Japan, has invested 1 billion yen ($8.5 million) to increase its output of valve seats by 30% in India, reports Nikkei Asian Weekly. The investment follows a trend of increased car and motorcycle production in the country – in 2015, India saw a 5% overall rise in car production, while motorcycle production reached 18.83 million units, compared to Japan’s 500,000 units.
The investment follows the building of Nippon Piston Ring’s newest factory in Karnataka, India, which began operation in January 2017. The 8,000 m2 plant has a monthly capacity of around 3 million valve seats, 30% higher than current levels
Nippon Piston Ring created its Indian manufacturing subsidiary in 2011, and operated from a leased Karnataka factory to produce valve seats for Honda Motor and Yamaha Motor motorcycles, as well as for Suzuki Motor cars, using Metal Injection Moulding and Powder Metallurgy. The company will now transfer production to the new Karnataka site.
By fiscal 2017, Nippon Piston has expressed its aim to boost sales by 5% from its fiscal year 2015 levels to 55 billion yen, of which around 60% will come from overseas, according to its medium-term management plan. While Japanese sales are expected to fall on the year, the component maker plans to offset the drop with sales growth abroad.
