Word: komatsu
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Taking pains to conceal their satisfaction, they peered into the distance and busily scribbled in their notebooks. Later, after several trips back, they bought the forlorn plant. Today, after a $27 million investment, the refurbished factory has become a manufacturer of heavy earth-moving equipment for Japan's huge Komatsu conglomerate...
With so much overseas demand for high-profile U.S. commercial property, competing foreign bidders practically bump into one another at airports. To increase their already considerable bargaining power, many would-be buyers go to striking lengths to conceal their ultimate intentions. The Japanese Komatsu executives who went shopping in Tennessee for a factory kept their state government hosts completely in the dark about what they actually wanted. After a tour of the 1940s-era structure that eventually housed their heavy-equipment concern, the Japanese pronounced it "very dull and scary, very gloomy," recalls John Gregory, a Tennessee official who escorted...
...companies have never fully recovered from the past recession. "The reaction here is very positive," says Stephen Newhouse, a spokesman for Caterpillar Tractor (1985 sales: $6.7 billion), which does some 50% of its business overseas. "A cheaper dollar certainly gives us immediate help in countries where we compete with Komatsu of Japan." American carmakers also are delighted because the declining dollar removes some of the $2,000-per-car cost advantage that Japanese auto firms have held in the U.S. Partly as a result, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca announced two weeks ago that his company will begin selling cut-rate...
...strong dollar has helped Komatsu, Caterpillar's powerful | Japanese competitor, to gain ground. Because of lower labor costs and a cheap yen, Komatsu is selling similar machinery for up to 30% less than Caterpillar in places such as Latin America and Africa...
Says Paine Webber Analyst Eli Lustgarten: "Outside the United States, it's a major war." In the U.S., Komatsu has gained 5% of the market; it aims to capture 15% of sales in the next year...