Japan-based Kobelco and its North American subsidiary Kobelco Construction Machinery USA celebrated the opening of a new $41 million, 156,000-square-foot excavator production plant yesterday in Moore that will create 131 jobs.
South Carolina and Spartanburg officials joined company leaders to welcome the plant, which sits about 1 mile south of Toray’s $1.4 billion carbon fiber plant in Tyger River Industrial Park-South.
“We started planning for a new South Carolina excavator plant two years ago,” said Kazuhide Naraki, president and CEO of Kobelco Construction Machinery Co. “Our plant site . . . offers great access to our customers, excellent visibility, service and an excellent labor force.”
Naraki praised support from state and local leaders, as well as contractors, associates, Spartanburg Community College, local utilities and other parties, for helping the project become a reality.
“We are very glad to have our U.S. plant in such a nice location,” Naraki said.
The plant, which includes 16,400 square feet of office space and a demonstration center, will initially produce two models, Kobelco’s SK210 hydraulic excavator and its SK350.
During the next two years, production of four more models will be added. Those models include the SK170, SK260, SK300 and SK500.
The plant’s capacity is anticipated to be about 1,800 excavators per year by the end of 2018.
Daniel Crosby, a production associate at the Kobelco plant, said he and the 41 other employees who have been hired to work at the facility so far are pleased with the company’s culture of caring for its workers.
“They take good care of us,” said Crosby. “It’s better than what I expected. It feels good to come to work every day.”
“We love Japanese companies,” said Spartanburg County Councilman David Britt. “We love the culture that (they) bring. Spartanburg could not do it without partners… We’re all about partnerships in working to make industry and business grow.”
Kobelco chose the 76-acre site in January 2015. It purchased the property from Greenville-based Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, a private investment firm formed by shareholders of Spartanburg-based Milliken & Co. in 2007 to pursue and preserve high quality energy and real estate assets.
Kobelco was one of the first in a new wave of “economic game-changers” Pacolet Milliken said it hoped to attract to the 2,282-acre industrial park of Highway 290 between highways 417 and 221.
Deputy S.C. Secretary of Commerce Jennifer Noel Fletch said since 2011, Japanese companies have announced $2.8 billion in investment and 2,700 new jobs in the state. She mentioned Toray, Fuji, Honda, Bridgestone, Nissan, Mitsubishi Polyester Fibers and AFL.
“South Carolina is great at making things,” Fletcher said. “From cars to planes to tires and now excavators, the world has taken notice of what we are doing here . . . It’s always an inspiration when you get to this point and you see a state-of-the-art facility like we’re standing in today.”
