Kobe Steel Ltd of Japan is to enter the market for automatic handling systems for use in the computer industry via a unit called Kobelco Automatech which will be capitalised at the equivalent of $2.7m and will be controlled by Kobe with a 93% stake: in order to create Kobelco, Kobe acquired two plants from Hagi Precision Electronics Corp as well as the marketing rights for its handling systems; Kobe says it has also agreed to buy US company Intelmatec Corp’s technology for handling systems in return for a 14% stake in Intelmatec.
