OSAKA, JAPAN - The high yen continues to motivate Japanese companies to set up offshore manufacturing operations in areas where labor costs are low. The Japanese plastics industry is no exception to the trend. In late October, Tsutsunaka Plastic Industry Co. established a joint venture company in Indonesia to produce plastic board materials for overseas subsidiaries of Japanese appliance makers and home electronics manufacturers.
Located near Jakarta, the new firm, P.T. Tsutsunaka Plastic Indonesia, is capitalized at $7 million with the Japanese parent company retaining a 75 percent stake. Mitsui & Co., a major Japanese trading company, will provide the balance of the capital. The two firms plan to build a plant on a 100,000-acre site in Java, Indonesia, at a cost of 1 billion yen (US$10 million).
Production is scheduled to start up in the fall of next year. Monthly targets for the first year's operation are about 330,700 pounds of PVC sheet and about 176,400 pounds of polycarbonate sheet. This is the first overseas venture of Osaka-based Tsutsunaka Plastic and, according to company officials, it is motivated by the need to reduce manufacturing costs. The company projects first-year sales of 1 billion yen (US$10 million).
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The following firms received ISO 9002 certification: Compounds, packaging products and raw materials maker Synergistics Industries Ltd.'s Valleyfield and St. Remi, Quebec, facilities and two Orangeville, Ontario, plants; DJ Plastics Inc., a custom injection molder based in El Paso, Texas; Atlantis Plastics Inc. of Miami, a manufacturer of polyethylene stretch and custom films and a variety of molded plastic products.