OREANDA-NEWS. International Crankshaft Inc., a joint-venture subsidiary of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation ("NSSMC") and Sumitomo Corporation ("Sumitomo Corp.") that forges crankshafts in the U.S., decided to build a new forging press line.

The car sales in North America are expected to grow by 7% for the next five years. Japanese and Korean automakers are shifting their production to North America from their home countries. Detroit three automakers are shifting from cast crankshafts to forged ones as they downsize and improve the performance of the engines to meet higher fuel efficiency requirements.

ICI, after operating in the U.S. for twenty years, currently runs its three forging press lines at full capacity to respond to robust North American demand, producing approximately 2.7 million crankshafts per year.  ICI decided to add a fourth forging press line to meet the customers' demand. With this investment, ICI's annual capacity will grow from current 2.7 million crankshafts to 4 million per year.

NSSMC forges crankshafts at four sites globally: Japan, US, China and India. Its combined annual capacity is approximately 11 million crankshafts with a estimated global market share of 10%. NSSMC will continue to meet the growing car market demands, improve its technological innovation capability and cost competitiveness, and accelerate its global business development.