2014

In April 2011, as one of the commemorative business initiatives to celebrate Minebea's 60th anniversary, we launched manufacturing operations in Cambodia. At the time, our main manufacturing sites in Thailand and China presented exchange rate risks, a shortage of labor, rising wages and other issues. Cambodia emerged as a new base which could help to solve these issues. The country's advantages included proximity to our largest manufacturing base, Thailand, as well as a stable political climate. The new plant in Cambodia was positioned as the primary assembly site, which requires a large labor force. This enabled plants in Thailand and neighboring countries to accelerate value-added manufacturing. Overall, the launch of manufacturing in Cambodia promised to establish a more efficient manufacturing structure in Asia.

In December 2011, we opened our first plant in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ), a 400m x 70m facility with a floor space of 28,000 ㎡. By March 2014, the plant's workforce had risen to about 4,000 employees, making our plant one of the largest in the PPSEZ just three years after opening. The plant's manufacturing lines assemble small motors and smartphone backlights around the clock. We plan to expand the scope of the plant's operations in the future to meet rising global demand.