IMOP opens Rs 108 crore second plant at Sri City, adds 200 jobs

IMOP, a Japanese-owned steel plate processing company, inaugurated its second production facility at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati district on Wednesday, 11 November 2026. The new plant represents an investment of Rs 108 crore, taking the company's total investment at Sri City to Rs 408 crore. It raises IMOP's annual production capacity by 25%, from 48,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes, and is expected to add 200 jobs, taking its workforce to 850.

Steel plate processing is an unglamorous but essential step in manufacturing. Large steel plates from mills are cut, shaped, welded and machined into parts that equipment makers can bolt straight onto their machines. IMOP's customers are makers of construction equipment such as excavators and loaders, so its growth tracks demand for the machines used to build roads, railways, housing and industrial projects.

The expansion is also a sign of how Japanese manufacturers are deepening their presence in India's southern industrial clusters. Sri City, on the Andhra Pradesh–Tamil Nadu border near Chennai, has become a base for many foreign companies, and IMOP's second plant comes 14 years after it first set up there. A supplier adding capacity usually means its customers expect to need more parts in the coming years.

For Andhra Pradesh, the 200 new jobs and the extra investment add to the state's manufacturing base in the Tirupati district. Skilled jobs in welding, machining and quality control at such plants also draw on local technical institutes for trained workers.

Peepals calculation: Before this plant, IMOP's investment at Sri City stood at about Rs 300 crore (408 − 108 = 300), so the new plant raises it by 36% (108 ÷ 300 = 0.36). The workforce rises from about 650 to 850 (850 − 200 = 650), an increase of about 31% (200 ÷ 650 ≈ 0.31), slightly faster than the 25% rise in capacity. The new investment works out to about Rs 54 lakh per new job (Rs 108 crore ÷ 200) and about Rs 90,000 for every additional tonne of annual capacity (Rs 108 crore ÷ 12,000 tonnes). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: The second plant adds 12,000 tonnes of annual capacity and creates about 200 jobs at Sri City, with hiring for production, maintenance and quality roles.

Long-term: Higher capacity lets IMOP supply more components to construction equipment makers as infrastructure building continues, and strengthens Sri City's position as a cluster for Japanese manufacturing suppliers.

Who is affected: Workers in Tirupati district and nearby areas, construction equipment makers that buy IMOP's components, local suppliers and service providers at Sri City, and the Andhra Pradesh government, which is seeking manufacturing investment.

Questions and Answers