News Room 2003 (The former Furukawa-Sky)
On the Launch of Furukawa-Sky Aluminum Corp. (Exhibit 2)
October 2, 2003
Furukawa-Sky Introduces Large Aluminum Hot-Forging Hydraulic Press
Furukawa-Sky has introduced a 15,000-ton aluminum hydraulic press, one of the largest of its kind in Asia, ahead of manufacturing large-scale aluminum forgings at its plant in Oyama, Tochigi prefecture. The amount of investment was approximately 2 billion yen and is scheduled to go into operation in June 2004.
Our aluminum forgings division has been a pioneer in Japan, possessing unique technologies and a long history supplying aluminum hydraulic forgings for important structural components for aircraft. In recent years, we have been an important stable supplier in Japan for defense, consumer goods, and the aerospace industry.
With strong long-term demand for aluminum hydraulic forgings in Japan, we forecast strong growth large-scale aluminum forgings in aerospace, telecommunications, industrial machinery, and the transport industry. The decision to add this large hydraulic press was made after assessing the anticipated need for large-scale aluminum forgings in the future. It was clear that the current 5,000-ton press would not provide enough capacity in the future and the decision was based on the need to build a self-contained system to provide stable supply with high quality and high performance.
The new forging press will be one of the largest in Asia. Using our superior technology development abilities and advanced manufacturing technologies together with a solid quality assurance system, we will provide a stable supply of high-accuracy, high-quality large-scale forgings.
Details are provided below.
- Facility: 15,000-ton hydraulic forging press and ancillary equipment
- Location: Forging plant (Oyama, Tochigi)
- Schedule: Operation to start in June 2004; mass production to begin in second half of 2004
- Capital investment: approx. 2 billion yen