Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Corp., a division of Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., headquartered in Osaka, Japan, has expanded its cutting tool operations with the establishment of a representative office in Hanoi, Vietnam, and a logistics base for cutting tools in Kashiwa City, Japan. The company’s Hanoi office will carry out marketing and other activities for its hard metal cutting tool business in Vietnam, while its new Japanese logistics base is expected to shorten delivery times for customers in east Japan. 

The establishment of a representative office in Hanoi follows steady economic growth in Vietnam, with an increasing number of Japanese automakers and parts manufacturers having opened plants in the country as global production bases, as well as accelerating the installation and expansion of Vietnamese production lines in recent years. 

In addition to these activities by Japanese manufacturers, a rise in machining in local industries is also generating a rising demand for cutting tools. Sumitomo Electric will provide its local sales agents in Hanoi with technical support in machining, mainly in the automotive, steel, industrial machinery, aircraft, semiconductor and precision parts industries.

The company’s new logistics centre in Kashiwa City, meanwhile, is its second domestic logistics base for cutting tools, after the Kansai Logistics Center in Osaka City. According to Sumitomo Electric, the establishment of the Kashiwa centre will make it possible for orders placed in the afternoon to be delivered the next morning to companies in the Tohoku and Kanto region, as well as further west.

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