Sumitomo-Demag Invests In The Future
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Sumitomo to rearrange production: Wiehe to become a center of excellence for all-electric injection moulding machines
The Wiehe, Germany, based production facility of Sumi-tomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH will be turned into a major manufacturing base for all-electric injection moulding machines within Sumitomo Heavy In-dustries. Besides the new all-electric IntElect for the European market, the Japanese-German IMM-manufacturer, with European headquarters in Schwaig near Nuremberg, will produce the Japanese SE- machine range as well.
The new designation of the Wiehe plant, that formerly pro-duced hydraulic and all-electric machines up to clamping forces of 210 tons, falls in line with the global strategic reor-ganisation of production tasks within the Sumitomo Heavy Industries group.
“Focusing our traditional manufacturing base at Wiehe on all-electric injection moulding machines will help us be prepared for the revival of demand that will follow the current market crisis. There will be a strong and early demand for smaller all-electric injection moulding machines globally once the markets will recover.“, says Dr. Tetsuya Okamura, spokesperson for the management: „The benefits of the precision, productivity and energy efficiency of electric injection moulding machines appeal to our customers and the polymer processing commu-nity more than ever.“
To achieve the company’s strategic and long –term goals of maintaining and strengthening the technological leadership Japanese parent company, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, has decided to invest 50 million Euro into Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH in Germany. „The objective of this strategic decision, which we have taken against the back-ground of the current market crisis, is to maintain and to strengthen both Demag plants in Schwaig and Wiehe.“, Dr. Okamura explained.
Within the scope of the allocation of responsibilities in its new global production strategy, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics recently ended its joint venture agreement established with Larsen & Toubro in 1999, viz. L&T-Demag Plastics Machinery Ltd. of Chennai, India. As already announced in March 2008 Sumitomo Heavy Industries is proceeding to establish a sub-sidiary in India.