Kimura Foundry America plans to open an $8 million manufacturing facility in Shelbyville by the end of next year, adding up to 20 jobs by 2020.
Company executives and local officials plan to announce the news Wednesday morning, the Shelby County Development Corp. said.
In 2014, Kimura opened a U.S. sales office in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois. But this wlll be the company’s first U.S. production facility.
The Shelbyville Kimura plant will be 5,200 square feet and will be constructed on 10 acres the company purchased at 1200 Enterprise Drive, on the north side of the city.
The factory will use 3-D printing equipment to produce castings and moldings for automotive and pump manufacturing clients.
Kimura Foundry America is a subsidiary of Japan-based Kimura Group, which was founded in 1927 and is a privately held company operated by members of the Kimura family.
Shelbyville, population 20,000, is no stranger to
Japanese companies. The city and the surrounding county are home to about a dozen companies based in Japan.
Last year, some of those companies announced plans to establish or expand operations.
In June 2016, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. said it would build a $50 million manufacturing plant to process steel wire used in auto industry fasteners. That plant will employ 70 people.
And in July 2016 Ryobi Die Casting USA said it would spend $97.5 million to expand its Shelbyville auto-parts plant, boosting employment from 860 to 1,050 by 2018.