Automotive battery maker Shin-Kobe Electrical wants to produce forklift batteries in China.

Japanese automotive battery maker Shin-Kobe Electrical Machinery Co wants to produce lead batteries for electric forklifts in China this year.

According to Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the company will produce 5,000 to 10,000 batteries annually through a subsidiary in Dongguan in Guangdong province. All of Shin-Kobe's batteries are currently made in Nabari, Mie prefecture in Japan.

The Japanese paper reports that the growing use of electric forklifts in China is prompting Shin-Kobe to launch local production.

The expansion of the Dongguan plant to increase its output of automotive batteries and the inclusion of a forklift battery line is expected to cost between JPY1 billion and JPY2 billion (USD10.7 million and USD21.4 million).

Shin-Kobe currently sells JPY4 billion - JPY5 billion (USD42.9 million - USD53.6 billion) of forklift batteries a year, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports. Its Dongguan plant is targeting Japanese forklift manufacturers based in China.

Kenichiro Takase, senior manager of Japan Industrial Vehicle Association, who is currently attending the Industrial Truck Association Spring Meeting in Washington DC, US, tells Forkliftaction.com News that Komatsu, TCM, Toyota, Nichiyu and Mitsubishi all have plants in China.

"Except for Nichiyu, they are mainly producing internal combustion trucks in their Chinese plants," he says.

Takase adds that he does not know the marketshare of Japanese forklift manufacturers in China but "guesses [that] their share is not high compared with their presence in other markets".