Kobelco Construction Equipment breaks ground for plant expansion in Sri City

Kobelco Construction Equipment India (KCEI) Private Limited, the Indian arm of the Japanese Kobelco Group, has started construction for an additional plant in Sri City, in Andhra Pradesh.

Ravindra Sannareddy, Founder Managing Director, Sri City along with Akira Kinoshita, Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer, Kobelco Construction Machinery (KCM), and Tetsuo Yamamura, Deputy Director, Shimizu Corporation, recently performed the groundbreaking ceremony in Japanese tradition.

“Kobelco Group is the very first Japanese customer in Sri City and progressing very well. We are very happy as this is the third expansion by the Group, following the augmentation of its Crane unit and Plate Processing units in the recent past, and this testifies the investor-friendly ecosystem that has already been built in Sri City,” Sannareddy said.

“I am optimistic that these expansions will further drive the economic growth in the region. Also, I am confident, this region will soon grow as an automobile cluster, developing a symbiotic ecosystem benefiting the auto component makers.” he added.

Akira Kinoshita said “at present the plant has an annual production capacity of 2000 unit and has been operating at near full capacity meeting domestic requirement mainly and some exports. With the manufacturing capacity almost hitting its upper limit, we decided to further enhance the production capacity by 50%. We are sure, this expansion will promote our business giving us bright future.”

KCEI will investment Rs. 75 crore for commissioning the new plant of 6500 sqm area. It is expected to be ready in a year. The highly automated plant will employ directly over 50 people. When the new facility becomes operational, the annual production capacity of KCEI will be about 3000 of Hydraulic Excavators of capacity ranging from 14 tonnes to 38 tonnes.

By maximising the advantages of local production in India, a market where further growth in demand is expected, KCEI seeks to capture a greater share of both domestic and overseas market demand.