Oberlausitz: TDDK celebrates 25th anniversary and plant expansion

Since 2000, the subsidiary of the two Japanese automotive suppliers Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) and Denso Corporation has been producing refrigerant compressors for car air conditioning systems for car manufacturers throughout Europe with over 900 employees in the industrial area of Straßgräbchen, which has been part of the neighboring town of Bernsdorf since 2007. In this quarter of a century, TD Deutsche Klimakompressor GmbH (TDDK) has developed into the largest and most sustainable Japanese investment in the industry not only in Saxony and Lusatia, but also in eastern Germany.

Ken Suito, Head of the Compressor Division and member of the Board of Directors at the Japanese parent company TICO, traveled all the way from Japan to celebrate TDDK's anniversary. He and President and Managing Director Atsuyuki Morishita, who joined TDDK at the beginning of the year, also addressed the guests with words of welcome. Among them was his predecessor Yoichi Terao, President of TDDK from 2022-2024 and now Head of Development at the parent company TICO, who was delighted with the completion of the major project that began during his term of office.

Over the past three years, the shareholders from the Toyota Group have invested another 90 million euros in the extension, an automated high-bay warehouse and a production line for electrically driven compressors with casting and machining of housing parts and an assembly line. The electric compressors are used in vehicles with electric motors. For TDDK, they represent the technology of the future in the transformation to electromobility.

The building application for this major construction project was approved by the district of Bautzen within eight weeks in 2023. In the fall of 2022, all parties involved sat down with the building authority in order to identify and jointly overcome potential approval hurdles during the phase of preparing the extensive building application. The ingredients of the recipe for success are a matter for the boss, hard-working technical experts and solving problems quickly by everyone talking to each other openly and transparently. In the meantime, this rapid approval process has become the standard for major projects in the district of Bautzen and even serves as a model in the Saxon administration and business development sector.

Covering an area of 108 meters wide by 158 meters long, the sixth section of the plant adds 17,000 square meters to the 73,000 square meters of the existing building. The most important part of the extension is an automated high-bay warehouse measuring 74 meters by 40 meters. The 17-meter high racking structure extends over all three floors of the building and offers space for more than 13,000 pallet spaces on 12 levels for the increasing variety of individual parts and components.

Despite the structural crisis in the German and European automotive industry, series production of the new electric compressors is also due to start at the beginning of next year. Due to demand, however, it will initially start with smaller quantities. The production of mechanical refrigerant compressors, which are driven by the combustion engine via V-belts, will remain the focus of TDDK's business for longer than expected at the start of the project three years ago.

• The background

TDDK was founded in August 1998 and after almost two years of construction and preparation, assembly of the refrigerant compressors began in April 2000. On September 28, 2000, the grand inauguration ceremony took place with Minister President Biedenkopf, the Japanese ambassador and the CEOs of the two parent companies. Over the years, not only the number of assembly lines increased. Further production stages such as casting and machining of the aluminum housing parts were added.

On July 24, 2025, the 75 millionth compressor fully assembled at TDDK left the assembly line. If you add the compressors completed at TDDK with just the coupling and the compressors built entirely in Japan, for which TDDK serves as a logistics base and shipping location, then by April of this year, one hundred million compressors had already been shipped from TDDK to the car plants. Since 2021, this has also included electric compressors built by the parent company in Japan. From 2021 to 2024, 2.5 million electric compressors were shipped from TDDK. This year, the company expects to ship over one million electrically driven refrigeration compressors for the first time.