Toshiba industrial motor plant opens

Global electronics giant Toshiba Corporation opened a new industrial motor manufacturing facility in Viet Nam yesterday, aiming to meet the rising demand for high-efficiency, environmentally friendly motors.

The opening ceremony of the new production facility at the Amata Industrial Park in southern Dong Nai Province was attended by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong.

Toshiba Industrial Products Asia Co Ltd, Toshiba Corporation’s Viet Nam subsidiary, began constructing the factory in April 2009 on approximately 80,000sq.m of land. The completed facility has a floor area of 24,000sq.m.

“We have set a target of manufacturing 1.2 million motors a year by 2015, and expect a turnover of US$400 million,” said Norio Sasaki, president and CEO of Toshiba Corporation.

The alarm over global warming has spurred demand for high-efficiency motors that consume less power and emit less CO2, Sasaki said.

“The effect in reducing CO2 discharge of 1.2 million high-efficiency industrial motors is around 200,000 tonnes, equivalent to planting 14 million trees,” he said.

The plant expects to employ around 500 people when it operates at maximum capacity.

The manufacture of high-efficiency industrial motor requires many materials including metal and plastic that the company can source from the domestic market.

“Toshiba hopes to cooperate and use products of Vietnamese supporting industries,” Sasaki said.

At present, the ratio of domestically-produced materials and components is 33 per cent, and they plan to increase this to 70 per cent, according to Norihiro Tsujioka, general director of Toshiba Industrial Products Asia.

The current output of the new plant is 7,000 motors, for which it employs 150 local employees. It expects to increase its operating hours from the current eight hours a day to 16 hours by December, and 24 hours by next year.

The manufacture and sale of motors meeting higher levels of efficiency than current regional standards were expected to become mandatory in the United States in December this year, and other governments are expected to follow suit, Tsujioka said. — VNS

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