Furukawa Electric Eyes New Offshore Auto-Parts Plant

Furukawa Electric studies new plants for automotive wire harness and air bag parts to expand profit from automotive parts business. The firm tries to find new wire harness plant sites to increase the supply for Europe and India. The firm also eyes Brazil plant to make steering roll connector for air bag.

The firm selects the wire harness plant site for Europe depending on cheap work force, better materials availability and trade tax condition. The firm studies potential plant in Mexico and Brazil while rivals export harness for Europe from plants in Eastern Europe and North Africa. If the firm would decide to build plant in Brazil, the plant is the first base in Brazil for the firm.

The firm already has wire harness plant in northern India of Haryana state. The firm studies potential new plant in southern India to expand the supply capacity.

The firm also expands existing plants in emerging countries to serve growing demand for automobile. The firm also prepares for production shift from Huizhou of China to Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian plants to improve the cost competitiveness.

The firm already exports steering roll connector for air bag to Brazilian transplant of European automaker. The firm tries to launch Brazilian plant for the products depending on the demand to keep and expand the position with estimated world 40% of market share.