Mitsubishi Electric has announced that it is strengthening its factory automation (FA) businesses, with the aim of raising its global sales from ¥480bn ($6.15bn) at present to ¥600bn ($7.7bn) by the year ending in March 2016. It also plans to boost its share of income from outside Japan from 45% to 50% over the same period.

Much of the growth will come from expanding its actvities in emerging markets such as in China, India and Brazil. In China, Mitsubishi aims to raise its annual sales from ¥60bn ($0.77bn) at present to ¥100bn ($1.28bn) by March 2016. By the end of 2012, the company will have three FA factories operating in China, making products such as PLCs, HMIs, servomotors, numerical controllers, drives and low-voltage switchgear.

In India, Mitsubishi will work with local partners to establish and strengthen its production activities, starting with manufacture of LV switchgear. By next year, it plans to increase the size of its Indian sales workforce more than ten-fold, and to triple the number of FA-related distributors.

Mitsubishi will make its Singapore sales subsidiary its headquarters for the Asean region. It will also start to produce smart meters at affiliated companies in Thailand and Indonesia.

The company also plans to strengthen its co-operation with global partners in areas such as software, ERP systems and CC-Link, to enhance its iQ Platform business.

As part of its initiatives, Mitsubishi plans to launch a global FA Web site in 22 languages in spring 2012. It will also deploy a global supply-chain data management system to manage orders, sales, stock and production information worldwide.

“We have determined that we must strengthen our FA solutions capabilities to support our customers` manufacturing productivity and to provide them with more prompt and reliable service,” says Hideyasu Nonaka, group president of Factory Automation Systems and senior vice-president of Mitsubishi Electric. “To achieve these goals, we have decided to collaborate more closely with our partners who provide FA solutions and strengthen our production and sales capacities worldwide, reinforcing our position as a leading global FA player.”