Mitsubishi Electric to Invest 11 Billion to Beef Up Competitiveness in Satellite Business

Mitsubishi's Kamakura Seisakusho Co. is building a new satellite production plant to boost its capacity in that department, reported Mitsubishi Electric, April 7. It means an investment aggregating 11 billion yen - a sizeable outlay for propelling the capacity of one of Mitsubishi's growth-towing legs. The company contemplates large-scale investments to boost its international competitive power to cater for developing markets.

The new production plant, 13 thousand square meters, is scheduled to start operation in October 2019, operating thoroughly from testing to assembly. The proposed investment will help increase the company's satellite production capacity from 10 to 18, under a complete internet-linked production system in every stage of production - from designing to manufacture. The flow of work is expected to be drastically streamlined to cut down on both period and cost by 30 %.

Mitsubishi's current space-related investment totals 3 billion yen on the solar panel for satellites, and the 11 billion outlay this time outstrips it by a large margin.
The company has optioned to make such an ambitious investment to challenge the growing international competition over winning orders for space satellites currently dominated by Boeing, Airbus, etc. Director Masamitsu Okamura of the Electronic System Project Headquarters comments:

"To win or lose private demands, we have no option but to cut down on cost.

"We are going after not just building satellites but rearing technicians to engage in the space industry. We'll go all out to boost our shares targeting the developing countries in Southeast Asia."

Mitsubishi Electric has built the meteorological satellite Himawari (Sunflower), etc. and its space system projects earned 110 billion yen in 2015. The company aims at a gross turnover of 150 billion in the space business in 2021. The ambitious investment this time is undoubtedly one great leap forward. (Nathan Shiga)