Komatsu Ltd., the world's second-biggest maker of earthmovers, will start its first factory in Russia to assemble excavators and forklifts by June 2010 to benefit from the nation's oil-funded construction boom.
About ¥7 billion will be spent to buy land and build the factory in Yaroslavl, about 300 km northeast of Moscow, spokesman Masahiko Kitaoka said Friday by telephone from Tokyo, where Komatsu is based.
Komatsu plans to build 3,000 excavators and 7,000 forklifts there in 2011 and forecasts sales of ¥50 billion for the year to March 2012, about 2 percent of its estimate for the current business year.