News and New Products

Mitsubishi, Toshiba Partner for Industrial Electric and Automation Systems Company

Online staff -- Electronic News, 4/18/2003

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Toshiba Corp. today announced a partnership to create a new, unnamed company that will integrate industrial electric and automation systems. The company will include industrial supervisory control systems, drive systems and power distribution systems.

The company president has also yet to be announced. Shareholding has been stated to stand at 50 percent for each company, however.

Scheduled to open its doors on Oct. 1 with headquarters in Tokyo, the venture will take aim at customers in industries such as metal processing, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, automobiles and foods markets.

The joint project will integrate utilities from both companies including development, manufacturing and engineering, sales, installation and services. Applicable divisions of each partner will also be used in the venture including TMA Electric Corp., an equally owned venture of Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba, and Toshiba GE Automation Systems Corp., a Toshiba subsidiary.

The business has three goals: the promotion of overall competitiveness, encouraging a global presence, and increased operating efficiency, the partners said. In turn, the two companies said they expect it to become a leading system integrator in industrial electric and automation systems.

This partnership comes in response to the poor global market outlook for industrial electric systems. Currently, in Japan manufacturers persist to cut back on capital investment. Overseas markets, while seeing stable demand, are also seeing more competition, Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba noted.