July 20, 2008

Mitsubishi JV to expand presence in India

It is reported that Mitsubishi Corporation, which recently formed a JV with Coimbatore based Craftsman Automation to market and service its wide range of industrial machines in India, is looking at the northern and Western parts of India for expansion.

The new 70:30 JV called MC Craftsman Machinery has opened branches in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. It is looking at a turnover in excess of INR 20 crore from the sale of 40 electric discharge machines in the first year and double the sales in the second year of operations.

In addition to this, it is also aiming to sell around 10 laser cutting machines. During the last two years, Mitsubishi has sold 55 machines in south India. Its major clients in India include NTTF, Mastercraft and GTTC. The first batch of fully built machines is expected to arrive later in May 2008 from Nagoya in Japan.

Mr Ashwani K Datta VP of MC Craftsman Machinery said that "We have just commenced our JV operations in India. We will continue to expand our service network here and depending on the market response, we will be setting up a manufacturing facility in India."

The new JV will offer industrial machinery Mitsubishi's range like electrical discharge machine, CNC wire cut machine, and laser cutting machine, made by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation along with machinery used in the field of die & mould and sheet metal industry.