Japan’s Kobe Steel has announced that it has decided to invest in the expansion of a plant at Kobelco Industrial Machinery India (KIMI), a production base of the Kobe Steel Machinery Business division. The expansion is projected to be completed in fiscal 2027, with an estimated total investment of about 3 billion yen.
Established In 2010, L&T Kobelco Machinery Private Limited (LTKM) began as a joint venture (49% share held by Kobe Steel) with Larsen & Toubro (L&T), India’s largest construction engineering company that also handles industrial machinery. In 2019, the company turned LTKM into a wholly owned subsidiary and changed its name to Kobelco Industrial Machinery India (KIMI).
Since then, KIMI has steadily expanded its business as a manufacturing and sales base for tyre and rubber machinery (rubber mixers and rubber extruders) in India and the surrounding area. In recent years, demand for tyre and rubber machinery has been increasing particularly in India owing to the rising automotive production. This expansion investment aims to enhance production capacity and promote business growth.
Alongside the plant expansion, new production facilities for non-standard compressors will be installed at KIMI. This will allow the company to strengthen its business by expanding into India the production of non-standard compressors, which are currently manufactured in Japan, the US, China, and South Korea, diversifying its production bases toward market expansion and cost competitiveness enhancement in sectors related to future energy transitions, advancing into the Middle Eastern and African markets including India, and mitigating country-specific risks that have become increasingly evident in recent years.
In addition, prior to this investment decision, Kobelco Machinery Global Capability Centre, Chennai (KMGC, Chennai) was established as the KIMI Chennai branch in January 2025 to commence design and development operations focusing on tyre and rubber machinery and non-standard compressors.