OREANDA-NEWS. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) have decided on a policy to transfer operations currently performed at MHI's Yokohama Dockyard & Machinery Works' Kanazawa Plant and MHPS's Yokohama Works (Kanazawa Area) to other business bases in Japan and overseas. The company's aim is to pursue consolidation and optimization of its production bases for each product category as a way of further strengthening its global competitiveness in terms of technology, costs and efficiency. The transfer initiative is scheduled for completion by the end of March 2016.

Operations relating to MHPS's thermal power generation systems and equipment for industrial applications will be increasingly shifted to overseas bases with having support from MHPS's Nagasaki Works and Kure Works, which will also take responsibility for partial production. Production of small and medium-scale steam turbines will be shifted primarily to a Chinese partner company to which MHPS presently licenses related technology. Manufacture of small and medium-scale boilers will be transferred mainly to MHPS's factory in the Philippines.

Manufacture of stationary engines for power generation handled by MHI will be relocated to MHI's Sagamihara Machinery Works. By consolidating personnel and plant facilities and unifying operations into a comprehensive engine business, the company will strengthen its response to globally expanding demand for distributed power sources.

MHI's personnel today undertaking research and development in the Kanazawa area, at the Technology & Innovation Headquarters' Research & Development Center and the ICT Solution Headquarters' System Technology Development Department, will be transferred in tandem with the shifts in related production operations, in order to achieve enhanced efficiency in technology and product development. The physical plants will be consolidated at the bases concerned.

MHI's Yokohama Works' Kanazawa Plant / Kanazawa Area have operated for more than 30 years as a base of operations for small and medium-scale thermal power generation systems, engines, environmental equipment, etc., enabling a signification accumulation of related technology and expertise. Since February 2014, MHPS succeeded and managed thermal power generation system business.

With the decision of this time, all products and functions of Kanazawa Plant are to be transferred to elsewhere. Going forward MHI and MHPS look will make even more effective use of this vast experience as a way of further enhancing operational efficiency and strengthening its competitiveness in the global market.

Future utilization of Kanzawa Plant will be studied, reflecting the municipal government of the City of Yokohama, the location of the plant, and others.