The following article appeared in the February 3 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
The workforce at Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing Ltd. of Guelph may more than double within the next six years.
In a Jan. 26 letter to Guelph city council, the firm’s chief executive officer, Hideo Kitawaki, asserts that Hitachi wishes to complete a $32 million expansion at its Guelph operation to increase production of mining trucks and other vehicles.
The “aggressive strategy” would see the workforce at the plant grow from its current 400 employees to as many as 975, by 2018, the letter asserts.
“The major purpose for this building expansion is to increase the production capacity for mining trucks in order to expand the worldwide market share in collaboration with our mother company (HCM) in Japan, which is also currently undergoing a building expansion,” Kitawaki writes.
The letter was sent to council as a request to enter into an agreement with the municipality about development charges expected to be associated with the expansion. Hitachi is looking to arrange with the city to pay its fees in an early fashion to expedite this expansion.
The letter suggests Hitachi is seeking to begin out of its pending additional Guelph manufacturing centre, at 200 Woodlawn Rd. W., by April 2013. It also suggests the firm expects to add a robotic welding system and a paint facility to be completed in 2014.
The company expects to see annual production rise from 150 units to 280 units and for yearly sales out of the Guelph plant to grow from about $250 million to $580 million by 2018, according to information provided to the city.
The city’s economic development department is recommending that council approve the early development charge request. The firm would pay $453,329.57 under its proposed deal. That would see it save about $160,000, as the city’s industrial development charge rate is to increase later this year.
A city report on the request that will be considered by council on Monday suggests similar agreements have been struck in the past by the municipality.
The rosy local forecast by Hitachi represents the continuation of a major recovery for a facility that was forced to make significant job cuts two years ago.
In 2010, the company announced a 20 per cent workforce reduction, the result of plummeting demand for its large-scale trucks. The market has since turned around.
Improved demand for base metals and coal has resulted in a need for more large mining trucks in the massive mining operations in countries like Columbia and Indonesia, where Hitachi has major customers.