Tokusen Buys Site for Solar Energy Supply

SCOTTSBURG, IN-Tokusen USA has announced plans to move into a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility here to make sawing wire, which is used to slice silicon ingots for the solar energy industry. The building, at 1010 W. Weir Rd., was vacated by American Steel Cord in late 2008.

The Ono City, Japan-based Tokusen Group company will invest several million dollars to purchase and equip the building by 2012, according to a statement by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. The public-private partnership offered Tokusen up to $1.1 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $75,000 in training grants, based on the company’s pledge to create 134 new jobs for the area.

Hiromi Kanai, chairman of the US-based arm of the company, said in a statement that his company is experiencing a growth in demand for solar panels. The firm also has plants in China and Japan. “Plans to expand the group’s production capacity have been underway for some time,” he said in a statement. “With the help of the state, we were able to purchase and upgrade this existing facility to meet our production needs more economically than the expansion of our other facilities.”