Denso plans $1 billion in N.A. projects
U.S. product line will expand; 1,200 new jobs
 | Sugi: “World-first products” |
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DETROIT -- Denso International America Inc. plans to invest about $1 billion in North America over the next four years, including about $750 million in the United States that will create more than 1,200 jobs, the supplier said at the Detroit auto show last week.
The unit of Japan's Denso Corp. said it would expand production of some current parts, including radiators and condensers, but also would add parts to its U.S. lineup. Those include stop-start starters, which it began building in Maryville, Tenn., in June; high-output alternators; inverters for hybrid vehicles; memory-seat modules; and gasoline direct injectors.
Denso also said it will invest to make its own production equipment, including dies, in North America as part of a plan to cut imports from its parent in Japan. Denso now spends "several millions of dollars" a year on dies and other production equipment imported from Japan, a spokeswoman said.
Denso today employs 15,685 people at 32 plants, r&d facilities and administrative operations in North America.
The investments are part of Denso's current five-year business plan, which calls for global revenues to rise at a 7 percent annual pace to ¥4 trillion, or about $48.49 billion, in the fiscal year that will end March 31, 2017, from $38.24 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2012.
That goal implies revenues will rise faster than global vehicle production, which Denso predicts will average a 6 percent annual gain in that period.
In North America, Denso is targeting a rise of 7 percent a year for that stretch, which would take its North American revenues to $8 billion. The supplier wants to develop "world-first products originating in North America," Hikaru Sugi, senior executive director of Denso International America, wrote in Denso's 2012 annual report. In other words, rather than relying on products that are developed in Japan and sold first to customers there, the North American unit wants to develop its own products that are sold to clients in North America first.
Denso also wants to expand local purchasing. The company's goal is to slash by half its imports of parts that are manufactured in Japan and merely assembled in North America.
You can reach James B. Treece at jtreece@crain.com.
