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The 10 million club

August 2008 News

Varispeed’s market-leading variable speed drive manufacturer, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, marked the production of its 10 millionth inverter. The milestone unit was an inverter of the new V1000 generation. The Yaskawa inverter business has been growing steadily in the past decades, a development which was recently enhanced by the global economic situation. The new V1000 inverter generation introduced earlier this year, contributed to revitalising the business. According to Yaskawa Electric Corporation, the company’s present global market share amounts to over 14%.

In the past five years, the company’s sales volume has gained considerable momentum. It had taken 19 years – from 1974 to 93 – to cross the one million mark in inverter production. In the '90s, production facilities in the USA, Europe and China enhanced production, with Yaskawa steadily raising its output to reach the first five million in 2001. In only five years – from 2002 to 2007 – the figures soared by another five million to hit the 10 million mark.

The international production sites in the USA, Europe and China form part of the Yaskawa strategy to globalise corporate activities, increase production capacities, and establish local links to the markets. With the inauguration of Drive Centre’, the new 12 000 m² inverter production plant at the company’s site in Yukuhashi, Japan, the corporate production effort is further enhanced globally. Offering the potential for another 50% increase, the production start-up in Yukuhashi has created a solid foundation for achieving market leadership in the inverter industry.

In 1974, Yaskawa set a benchmark in the inverter industry with the introduction of the first transistor inverter drives. The new inverter generation V1000, launched in February 2007, is the latest in a series of benchmark products introduced since then. The performance characteristics of the new inverter family will open up additional opportunities in a competitive market.



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