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The eBearing News
August 28, 2003
Nachi Launches Czech Manufacturing Venture
copyright © 2003 eBearing Inc.
Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. (Japan) has established Nachi Czech s.r.o., expanding its bearing
manufacturing operations into eastern Europe for air conditioning bearings and CV joints.
As the European market for automotive air conditioning units has grown, Nachi's business supplying bearings
for those units has also grown. At the same time, many air conditioning manufacturers have been setting up
new facilities in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. As those companies move to eastern Europe,
they are asking key vendors to follow them and set up regional production facilities.
If Nachi declined to set up regional production, it risked losing not only sales to the new plants, but
potentially most of its air conditioning bearing sales as production gradually shifts to eastern Europe.
At the same time, Nachi has experienced increasing demand for constant velocity joint roller bearings
(CV joints, as used in automotive and light truck axle driveshafts). As eastern Europe hosts a growing
volume of new car and four-wheel-drive light truck production, regional demand for CV joints is
growing rapidly.
Addressing this need to set up regional production for air conditioning bearings and CV joints, Nachi is
building an all-new facility in Louny, North Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. The location chosen
in Louny is an industrial zone dedicated to attracting Japanese manufacturers. Aisan, Fujikoki, and Takada
have already built plants in the Louny industrial zone.
Located 30 miles (50km) from Prague, the 5,000 square meter (54,000 square feet) plant will
break ground in October, 2003. The first phase, employing 30 people, is scheduled for completion in
July 2004, coming online with limited production shortly afterward. Construction phases two and three,
along with full production capacity, will be in place by late 2005.
By its 2006 completion, the Nachi Czech s.r.o. facility is expected to have
cost €9.5 million (USD $10.3 million).
When full production capacity is online after phase three, the plant is will be able to produce
more than 2 million air conditioning bearings and 3 million CV joints per year. Nachi did not comment about
the plant's ultimate capacity except to say it is more than 6 million.
CzechInvest Project Manager, Bohuslav Frelich, commented, "Due to the high unemployment that
northwestern Bohemia suffers, we tried from the start of negotiations to direct the investor right
to this region. Besides Louny, sites in Kadan, Usti nad Labem, and Lovosice were also contenders.
But Louny won in the end. The site of Louny has an adequate size and shape for Nachi with a good
infrastructure, and the access is closer to Prague and Germany, which is essential for the Japanese company."
Oiles recently announced plans to build a €7 million ($8.3 million) bearing plant in Kadan, for
similar business reasons and in a similar industrial development area.
• article: Oiles will build new bearing plant in Czech Republic
And in 2002, Torrington opened a new plant in the Czech Republic near Brno.
• article: Torrington opens new bearing plant in Olomouc, Czech Republic
The factory is Nachi's ninth -- its fourth producing air conditioning bearings (added to plants in
Brazil, United States, and Japan) and its third producing CV joints (adding to plants in
the United States and Japan).
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
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Entire contents Copyright 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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