Furukawa Electric Takes Majority in Malaysian Auto Parts Maker

Furukawa Electric and Furukawa AS, the subsidiary to manufacture automotive parts, announced on Tuesday the companies took a majority stake in Malaysian automotive parts maker, Permintex Industries. Furukawa Electric Group acquired Permintex Industries’ shares from Permintex Holdings, a joint venture partner, and raised the stake to 51% from previous 5%. Furukawa Electric leads improvement of QCDDM (Quality, Cost, Delivery, Development and Management) in Permintax Industries to expand the automotive parts business in Malaysia.

Furukawa Electric Group gained 46% shares at approximately 500 million yen. Furukawa Electric holds 20.4% equity and Furukawa AS 30.6%. Permintex Industries supplies automotive wiring harness for Malaysian home-made cars, Proton and Perodua. The annual revenue was 4.1 billion yen in 2008. The current employee number is about 1,300.

Furukawa Electric improves quality control in Permintex Industries when commercial production of new-model Perodua is scheduled to start in late 2009. Another target is to receive wiring harness orders from Japanese automakers in Malaysia. Japanese automakers account for one third of Malaysian domestic car production. Furukawa Electric tries to raise its market share of automotive wiring harness in Malaysia from present 30% to 50% in next 4-5 years.

Furukawa Electric and Permintex Holdings operate another joint venture in Indonesia to manufacture automotive parts. Furukawa Electric Group has a 60% control in Indonesian JV.