The Timken Company (USA) and NSK Ltd. (Japan) have broken ground on their new joint venture manufacturing facility in China, Timken-NSK Bearings (Suzhou) Co. Ltd.

The facility, a $40 million, 50% / 50% joint venture of the two companies, is scheduled to come online in early 2004 with initial capacity of 15 million sets per year. The facility is dedicated to producing the highly price-competitive automotive sizes of single-row tapered roller bearings.

NSK President and CEO, Seiichi Asaka, said, "A joint venture plant in China managed jointly by an American and Japanese company is still a case that is not very often seen. Timken, the leading bearing manufacturer in the United States, and NSK, the major player in Japan, will combine their leading-edge technologies to China, known for her highly-skilled population, and establish the most efficient taper roller bearing plant in the world."

eBearing carried a highly detailed article about the joint venture in April 2002.