Daikin Industries Ltd. Chairman Noriyuki Inoue said Thursday his company is aiming to "become the top air conditioner maker in the United States," utilizing its new plant in a suburb of Houston as a base for its business expansion in the country.

The major Japanese air conditioner maker invested some 50 billion yen to build the new plant, which is one of the biggest manufacturing bases of its group. The company held an opening ceremony for the factory the same day.

"The plant will be a key for our global expansion and achieving sales of 3 trillion yen," Inoue said in an interview at the plant. The company has set a goal of achieving the annual group sales by fiscal 2020 through March 2021.

Inoue also said Daikin plans to adopt the cutting-edge technologies used in the new plant, including the Internet of Things, also for other plants of the group across the world.

Currently, Daikin holds the top shares of the air conditioning equipment markets in Asia, excluding China, and Europe. (Jiji Press)