DONGGUAN, CHINA — Japan's Sodick Co. Ltd. is moving injection molding machine manufacturing from China's Xiamen, Fujian province, to its longtime plant in Bangkok, Thailand.
Other operations, including production of electrical discharge machining (EDM) components, will remain in Xiamen, South Asia Department Sales Manager Jun Watanabe told Plastics News China at the Dongguan International Plastics, Packaging & Rubber Exhibition.
The move will cut production costs and save taxes, for example when shipping finished products to the United States, Watanabe said.
While Sodick is a leader in both the global and Chinese EDM markets, the company is trying to streamline injection molding press manufacturing. Watanabe candidly admitted, “our market share is not much.”
The 200-employee Xiamen plant, one of two Sodick has in China, began operation in 2007. The Bangkok plant, which began operations in 1988, has 1,200 workers. It also makes both wire and sinker electrical discharge machining equipment.