Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd., a Nagano, Japan-based injection molding machine builder, has completed a $13 million expansion of its San Antonio, Texas-based subsidiary, Nissei America Inc., and will begin operations next month.
The U.S. production base, which opened in 2018 to meet regional needs for large hybrid presses, now has an additional 30,580-square-foot building with floor space to assemble bigger machines with clamping forces up to 3,000 tons.
The facility is equipped with 80-ton cranes and like the other building, which has 60-ton cranes, is designed to allow semi-trucks to drive onto the floor of the factory to load machines for delivery.
The expansion began in March 2023 after Nissei received inquiries about super large-size injection molding machines from the North American automotive, housing and construction material markets, according to a Jan. 17 news release.
The U.S. site, which is one of five global production facilities, had opened as a series of tariffs imposed on China by the first administration of President Donald Trump gave momentum to the reshoring trend, the release also says.
"With the start of the second Trump administration in the U.S., all eyes, including people in Japan and around the globe, are on President Trump's new tariff plans," the release says. "Coincidentally, Nissei is launching the operation of the added factory building, and they consider it is a perfect timing to expand their made-in-USA machine lineups, increasing their presence in the U.S. market."
So far, the U.S. facility has delivered more than 200 injection molding machines with clamping forces ranging from 560 tons to 1,300 tons to the North, Central, and South American markets.
The site houses production and sales divisions, a technical center for mold trials and seminars, training classes and a parts center with an automated warehousing system.
In total, the factory area of the existing building and new building has reached 145,538 square feet in Texas.
Nissei has a long-time strategy of establishing production centers to serve markets on a stable basis with short delivery times. The other production sites are in Japan, China, Thailand and Italy.
Nissei acquired Turin, Italy-based Negri Bossi SpA in early 2020, in part for its range of large and super-large machines.