Kobe Steel Ltd. will double its annual production of welding material to 600,000 tons by around 2010 from the current 300,000 tons in a bid to meet growing demand from shipbuilders and car manufacturers in East Asia, a company spokesman said Tuesday.
The steelmaker plans to beef up the output of its 10 domestic and overseas manufacturing bases.
Annual production capacity at a factory in Thailand will be doubled to 19,000 tons by the end of this year and the company will invest 200 million yen to 300 million yen to increase its South Korean plant's production lines by the summer.
The company might also set up a couple of new factories -- in Europe and East Asia -- with a roughly 1 billion yen investment for each, if there is a demand.