Greif to Establish 2nd Japan Steel Drum Plant

World’s largest steel drum maker, Greif plans to establish second Japanese plant, said Mr. Eugene Wu, the vice president and president, Asia Pacific of Greif at press conference held in Tokyo on Wednesday. He emphasized the subsidiary, Greif Japan’s steel drum price is 15% lower than standard product of Japanese makers.

Greif plans to establish a steel drum plant, which has 700-800 drums production capacity per hour around Chiba prefecture, Japan. The firm would announce details in 6 months, Mr. Wu said. The capacity of firm’s first Japanese plant, which is located in plant of the user of Lubrizol Japan around Nagoya, is about 150 drums per hour. The plant manufactures Japanese Industrial Standards product with 1.2 millimeter thick and 1.0 millimeter thick.

The first plant’s site is less than 300 square meters and the second plant needs about 400 square meters when the plants have only finishing process with semi-finished product from mother plant in Shanghai. The capital expenditure in Japan is 30-50% of normal plant, Mr. Wu said.

According to Mr. Wu, Greif always promises its customer to reduce its steel drum purchase cost by 15% soon compared with other producers due to the firm’s original production system. Greif establishes the Japanese subsidiary when its customers invited the firm to supply steel drum in Japan. The firm plans to establish a plant in customers’ operation sites when a customer requires large volume of drum.