Nippon invested another 250 million yuan to build a new automotive coatings factory

On April 20, Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nippon Paint") issued a notice stating that it plans to invest 4.1 billion yen (approximately RMB 250 million) to build a new automotive paint production plant in Okayama Prefecture. The project will start in May 2021 and is expected to be completed in May 2022.

Nippon Paint stated in the new mid-term management plan (2021-2023) announced on March 5, 2021 that the newly established NPAC Okayama plant will respond to the existing NPAC Hiroshima plant (Hiroshima Minami-ku, Hiroshima Prefecture). It is a major base for the manufacture of automotive coatings for customers in the Kyushu region of China. The new plant will be constructed on the land of Nippon Paint's Okayama Plant from May 2021. It covers an area of approximately 81,600 square meters and a building area of approximately 4,700 square meters. It is expected to be completed in May 2022 and start operation in July of the same year.

In October 2020, Nippon Paint announced the organization and reorganization of its global automotive coatings business, and NIPPON PAINT AUTOMOTIVE COATINGS CO., LTD. ("NPAC") was officially born. In this reorganization, the Asian region (including the automotive coatings business of the NIPSEA Group), the automotive coatings business of Europe and the United States, including Japan and China, will be merged with NPAC as the global headquarters. From January 1, 2021, Nippon Paint Group began to implement a new organizational structure and build a globally integrated operating system. NPAC became the global headquarters of Nippon Paint's automotive coatings business, integrating the Group's automotive coatings business worldwide.

Masaaki Tanaka, Chairman, President and CEO of Nippon Paint, pointed out that "NPAC will become the world's third largest manufacturer of automotive coatings, with net sales exceeding 150 billion yen and the number of employees reaching 5,800. The purpose of this reorganization It is to sort out the geographically distributed management resources of Nippon Paint, and establish a strong global structure centered on sales and R&D, which can quickly respond to customer needs. We will actively invest in expanding production capacity and increase the capacity of our automotive coating plants Efficiency. With continuous technological innovation, we will provide customers with comprehensive support related to product supply and sales. In addition, in Europe and the United States, we must also improve the system that can meet customer requirements, further strengthen the automotive coating business, and achieve offensive operations."

According to Chinese and foreign coatings website, in order to further improve productivity and safety, NPAC Okayama Plant plans to introduce the latest smart factory projects such as the latest inventory management system and production execution system, as well as automation technology. In addition, in the production process, in order to respond to energy-saving and low-carbon needs, we plan to introduce the latest equipment, and the goal is to become an ESG factory.

In addition, the current production functions of the NPAC Hiroshima plant will be transferred to the Okayama plant in July 2023, and functions such as technology, sales, and logistics will continue to exist.

Masaaki Tanaka emphasized, "NPAC aims to become a leading company in the automotive coatings business. Through the new factory, it will provide high-quality products according to customer needs and implement ESG and SDGs management."