NSK Ltd. (Japan) and ABC Bearings Ltd. (India) have officially opened their joint venture manufacturing plant, located in SIPCOT Industrial Park, Tamil Nadu, India.

NSK becomes the first Japanese bearing manufacturer to open a plant in India.

Originally announced in 2007, the NSK-ABC Bearings Ltd. is 75% owned and financed by NSK, and 25% by ABC.

article: NSK and ABC form manufacturing venture in India
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With a total initial investment of ¥1.3 billion (USD $12.5 million), the 7,000 square meter plant will be fully built out by 2010 at a budget of ¥2 billion (USD $20 million).

Production will focus on HUB unit bearings, transmission bearings, A/C compressor clutches, and automotive bearings.

NSK said the joint venture is an opportunity to increase sales to Japanese and foreign automotive manufacturers in India. And for ABC, the plant offers new opportunities to increase sales to their existing customers by providing a greater range of bearing types.

After working together for the past ten years, the relationship between NSK and ABC is not new, although this level of involvement extending to a joint venture caught the industry by surprise. Historically, NSK has provided ABC with much-needed technical support to help ABC produce tapered roller bearings.

The automotive sector in India, however, is growing so strongly that NSK believes it has to have a presence there as a directly operating manufacturer. For NSK, "this provides new opportunities to increase sales to existing customers for those ranges of bearings which are not manufactured by them."

With over 35% domestic market share, NSK is Japan's largest bearing manufacturer, and operates 58 manufacturing facilities in 13 other countries. ABC is India's largest tapered roller bearing manufacturer, primarily producing tapered and cylindrical roller bearings for domestic market OEMs.