1. Establishment of NIPPONDENSO REFRIGERACOES LTDA. (NDB)

[1] Starting the Brazil Project

Having grown rapidly starting in the late 1960s, Brazil’s automobile market entered an era of motorization in the 1970s. Likewise, Brazil became the largest automobile producing country in South America in the early 1970s with the entry of Volkswagen and the US Big 3 (GM, Chrysler, and Ford), among others, which in total sold more than 500,000 automobiles in 1971. The demand for car A/Cs also entered a period of rapid expansion at this time.
Still, Brazil remained an unrecognized market. In 1972, then Executive Vice President Takeaki Shirai participated in a financial industry delegation to Brazil. In May of the following year, Managing Director Mamoru Tanabe received information that Ford Brazil was planning to begin local procurement of car A/Cs, which finally brought DENSO’s Brazil strategy to the starting line.
At this point, Robert Bosch GmbH approached DENSO with a proposal for launching a joint venture. The two companies decided to conduct a joint investigation on the premise that the venture would roll out an air conditioner business in Brazil. Following this decision, four associates from DENSO departed for Brazil in November 1973.