TOKYO, April 5 (Kyodo) — Kyocera Corp. said Thursday it will set up a joint venture in India in June to make cutting tools for industrial uses such as manufacturing vehicle parts.
Under their agreement, Kyocera sales unit Kyocera Asia Pacific Private Ltd. and local industrial cutting tool maker CTC (India) Private Ltd. will set up Kyocera CTC Precision Tools Private Ltd. in Jharkhand, eastern India, the Kyoto-based manufacturer said.
Kyocera CTC will be owned 74 percent by Kyocera and 26 percent by CTC, it said.
Kyocera CTC is expected to begin operating in June next year, and to hire about 200 employees in five years, Kyocera said.
The joint venture will be Kyocera's first manufacturing unit in India, where the market for industrial cutting tools is expected to continue growing at an average annual rate of 10 percent, it said. Industrial cutting tools are used to cut and process metal materials to make vehicle and industrial machinery parts.
The venture plans to sell its products to Japanese and other manufacturers operating in India, Kyocera said. It will aim for sales of 7 billion yen in the business year to March 2018, about 3.5 times more than Kyocera's current sales in India of industrial cutting tools, a Kyocera spokeswoman said.