Mitsubishi Electric plans greenfield facility in K'taka

First India facility for firm; third from Mitsubishi Group in State

The Mitsubishi Group’s investments in Karnataka are likely to cross Rs 500 crore in the next two years, with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a core company of the group, planning to set up its first greenfield facility in India in Vemagal of Kolar district. This is on the heels of company subsidiary Mitsubishi Elevators planning to set up a greenfield plant in Vemagal.

Sources with knowledge of the development said that the company has been allotted 20-22 acres of land in Vemagal to manufacture air-conditioning and factory automation systems.

An official source confirmed the development without quantifying the investments involved. However, another source told Deccan Herald, that estimated investments of Rs 150-200 crore could be vested in the new plant.

This will be Mitsubishi Electric’s first greenfield facility in the country. The company currently operates a sub-assembly for A&D inverters in Pune, which had earlier been considered as a possible location for the greenfield facility.

This will be the Mitsubishi Group’s third plant in Karnataka after the facilities being planned by Mitsubishi Elevators and the group’s electrical equipment joint venture with Toshiba called Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC).

It could not be immediately confirmed if Mitsubishi Electric’s planned facility in Vemagal would be utilising technical know-how from the Messung Group or tap Mitsubishi’s synergies with Japanese electronics peer Toshiba, with whom the company operates its 50:50 joint venture for electrical automation systems in India.

Deccan Herald had earlier reported that the joint venture TMEIC, formed in 2003, is looking to start a power systems plant near Tumkur by January next year. “It’s possible that the upcoming TMEIC facility will work closely on automation systems with the planned facility in Vemagal. But that would be too early to expect at this point of time,” sources said.

As reported earlier, Mitsubishi Electric subsidiary Mitsubishi Elevators is looking to set up a greenfield plant to manufacture elevators and escalators at Vemagal, 60 km from Bangalore, at an investment of Rs 150-200 crore.

Tokyo-headquartered Mitsubishi Electric, which estimates the industrial automation market in India to grow by more than 10 per cent per annum annually, does not have a manufacturing plant in India at present. It markets industrial automation solutions, air-conditioning systems and visual and imaging products here.

Mitsubishi Electric had acquired privately-held Messung Group, which distributes its products in India, to accelerate its industrial automation systems business in India and strengthen local sales and solutions.

Mitsubishi has been keen to invest in Karnataka in line with the state government going full throttle with its efforts to woo more Japanese companies into the state ahead of the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) scheduled to be held early next year.