On 1 January Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI, Nagoya / Japan; www.mhi.co.jp) and Ube Industries’ (Tokyo / Japan; www.ube.com) completed the share transfer of their respective injection moulding machinery businesses. First announced in mid-2016 (see Plasteurope.com of 03.08.2016), the decision to integrate these operations comes in response to the “increasingly severe” injection moulding machine business environment, both in Japan and across the world, the companies said.

Following the transaction, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Plastic Technology has been relaunched as U-MHI Platech (Nagoya / Japan). Its 139 employees specialise in the design, production and sales of injection moulding machines, auxiliary equipment, dies and parts. Simultaneously, Ube subsidiary Ube Machinery (Ube / Japan; www.ubemachinery.co.jp) has launched a new entity called U&M Plastic Solutions (Ube), which will market the products manufactured both by Ube Machinery and the newly established U-MHI. The new marketing company is home to 25 employees, and operates offices in Ube, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo / Japan.