Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
Mitsubishi Electric has joined other Japanese manufacturers in moving production of U.S.-bound exports out of China, an effort to minimize their exposure to the growing trade war between Washington and Beijing.
The machine tool maker relocated output of electrical discharge machines and laser processing machines from Dalian to Nagoya. The Dalian site had been making about 70% and 30% of these machines for the American market, respectively. But both are now included in Washington's list of additional tariffs against China, driving Mitsubishi Electric to manufacture them at home instead.
The Dalian site will continue making machine tools for the Chinese market. Mitsubishi Electric will move production for markets other than the U.S. out of Japan.
However, machine tool specialists like DMG Mori and Okuma are keeping production in China unchanged for now, since their output in China is mostly for the local market. But there are indirect pressures from the trade war, with manufacturers less willing to invest in new machinery, for instance.
A broad array of manufacturers from Japan are taking a second look at their Chinese operations. Asahi Kasei has moved production of U.S.-bound resin feedstock from China to western Japan's Okayama Prefecture. Komatsu plans to relocate output of certain parts for American-built hydraulic excavators from China to Japan and Mexico.