Kawasaki shelves plan for robot plant - paper

TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Kawasaki Heavy Industries (7012.T: Quote, Profile, Research) decided to cancel its plan to spend 10 billion yen ($94 million) to build a new industrial robot plant as auto and microchip makers curb capital investments, the Nikkei business daily said.

Kawasaki had planned to build the new plant in Japan this year to boost its industrial robot output capacity by 50 percent to 16,000 units a year, but it now intends to raise production capacity at its existing plant, also in Japan, to meet future demand growth, the Nikkei said on Saturday.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's No.1 automaker, plans to cut its capital spending in the year to March 2009 by 5.4 percent to 1.4 trillion yen ($13 billion) amid sluggish U.S. demand.

In the semiconductor industry, orders for Japanese chip-making equipment fell 45 percent in May as memory chip makers maintain a cautious stance on capital investments after sharp price falls.

No Kawasaki Heavy officials were immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Ben Tan)