Komatsu Opens Second Production Base in India

Komatsu Ltd. (President and CEO: Masahiro Sakane) held an opening ceremony at Komatsu India Private Limited today for its second production base in India. Komatsu India began operation in January this year, producing large dump trucks for mines in India.
In 1958, Komatsu signed a technical assistance agreement for bulldozers with the Government of India. This agreement was later passed to BHARAT EARTH MOVERS LTD. (BEML), an undertaking of the Government, through which Komatsu continued to make contributions to India’s production of construction equipment. In 1998, Komatsu established L&T-Komatsu Limited jointly with Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and embarked on the production of hydraulic excavators.
As the 21st century was ushered in, the Indian economy was gaining full momentum in growth, expanding the nation’s energy needs and infrastructure investments. As a result, India’s resource development projects are buoyant, driven by the thriving demand for coal for thermal power generation and for the production of iron, copper and non-ferrous metals. Against this backdrop, the mining industry is modernizing operations with equipment, and this is sharply increasing demand for large equipment for mining use. Anticipating a high level of orders for off-highway dump trucks and other equipment to continue into the future, Komatsu decided to build this new local production base and commenced the construction in May last year.
Komatsu India’s plant shares the basic design concepts with the Ibaraki Plant in Japan, which also opened in January this year, featuring a simple assembly line configuration and assembly instruction display system, among others. By making the production processes “visible” at the plants, Komatsu has established a solid quality assurance system.