With business leaders from the Sacramento area on hand,
Mori Seiki Co. Ltd. CEO Dr. Masahiko Mori last month
officially launched construction on what will be his
company’s first machine-tool-manufacturing plant outside
Japan. The 195,000-sq.-ft. factory in Davis, California, will
employ around 150 and is adjacent to the Japanese builder’s
research facility, Digital Technology Laboratory Corp. The two
installations will draw on resources at nearby Univ. of
California at Davis, where an engineering professor with ties to
Mori Japan has been performing contract research for the builder
(see M.I.R, 11/1/2010).
The machine-tool plant will boost Mori Seiki’s monthly
capacity by 100 machines to more than 900 in preparation for what
the company sees as a global market expansion in the next decade.
Groundbreaking for the plant came shortly after the official
opening of a joint technical center in Houston, Tex., operated by
DMG/Mori Seiki (Hoffman Estates, Ill.), the marketing and
sales combination of Japan’s Mori Seiki and Germany’s
Gildemeister, and by distributor Ellison Technologies, Inc.
(Santa Fe Springs,Calif.), the Mori partner company. The
22,500-sq.-ft. facility with a 6,500-sq.-ft. showroom is one of
the largest of Ellison’s 21 locations.
Gildemeister A.G. (Bielefeld, Germany) had launched
the marketing combination with Mori Seiki two years ago when the
two builders started acquiring shares in each others’
companies. Progressively around the world, Gildemeister has been
merging outlets of its DMG (originally for
Deckel-Maho-Gildemeister) marketing arm with those of
Mori’s.
For example in Australia, one of the first regions to be
merged in March 2010, the joint company is now undergoing a
restructuring in which three formerly independent Mori Seiki
dealers are now integrated into the new company and the formerly
DMG direct-sales structure with seven area managers now has
responsibility for sales and support of the combined list of
product offerings.
The two major builders—both are listed among the
world’s top ten in annual revenues—have been
strengthening their capital ties as well as their business
relationships. In April, following a capital increase the
Japanese builder now holds slightly more than 20% of
Gildemeister. Now Gildemeister, with a further purchase of
1.6-million shares of Mori Seiki, increases its holding of its
Japanese partner to 5.10%, exceeding the 3.9% ownership by CEO
Dr. Mori.
Meanwhile, the DMG/Mori Seiki business partnership is being
extended into Europe. The two companies intend to combine their
sales and service networks there, with operations in Germany
managed from Stuttgart, where the existing DMG Vertriebs und
Service G.m.b.H. is being renamed DMG/Mori Seiki Germany,
and with operations in the rest of Europe, now working under 17
national companies, being brought under a new DMG/Mori Seiki
Europe to be located in Switzerland. The deal is expected to
be concluded by the start of the EMO in September.
News roundup.
Reported by Metalworking Insiders' Report newsletter, copyright 2006 by Gardner Buisness Media, Inc., editor: Joe Jablonowski. Visit web site on
http://www.metalworkinginsider.info.
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