Mazak Receives Greater Cincinnati International Trade Award

Florence, Kentucky, August 22, 2012 - The Northern Kentucky International Trade Association, a program of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, recently awarded Mazak Corporation with a 2012 Greater Cincinnati International Trade Award, recognizing the machine tool manufacturer as a champion in the area of global commerce.

The Northern Kentucky International Trade Association presented the award to members of the Mazak team during the association's Merx International Best Practices Summit on August 9, which included interactive discussions between international executives, business leaders and global leaders on best practices for navigating through the global marketplace.

The Greater Cincinnati International Trade Award program demonstrates to the local region that companies of any size can access overseas markets. Due to a dramatic increase in the region's international activity and the number of nominations received for this award, the Northern Kentucky International Trade Association presented the award in two categories: the large company category with more than 500 employees and the small to medium company category with less than 500 employees.

Mazak, Toyota Boshoku and Toyota Motor Manufacturing were the top three finalists in the large company category. Both Mazak and Toyota Motor Manufacturing walked away from the summit as co-winners in this category.

Mazak Corporation designs and builds several of the world's most advanced machine tools at its North American manufacturing facility in Florence, Kentucky. While these machine tools serve the North American market, they are also in high demand throughout Asia and South America. In fact, Mazak recently expanded its manufacturing facility to be able to further increase capacity to export machines worldwide.

"It's a true honor to receive this award and have the Northern Kentucky International Trade Association recognize our company as being a champion in global commerce," said Brian Papke, president of Mazak Corporation. "By exporting our Kentucky-built machines, we are able to reaffirm the fact that the United States remains a very competitive manufacturing environment for delivering advanced technology products that meet the needs of global economies."

In order to be eligible for a Greater Cincinnati International Trade Award, companies must have established operations in the Greater Cincinnati area, hold memberships with a chamber of commerce as well as import or export from the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati area. Winners of the award are chosen based on revenue generation, global network and noteworthy accomplishments.

About Mazak Optonics Corporation

Mazak Optonics Corporation is a major supplier of laser-cutting systems, offering 50 laser models and leading the industry in the implementation of emerging laser technologies. The company’s 50,000 sq. ft. North American Headquarters are located in Elgin, Illinois, and feature a 30,000 sq. ft. laser technology center housing up to 18 machines for demonstrations and training. Mazak Optonics is part of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation (Oguchi, Japan), the global leader for the manufacture of machine tools and systems for the precision machining of metal parts, including CNC turning centers, horizontal and vertical machining centers, Multi-Tasking machining centers, turnkey cells and software solutions. The North American Headquarters for Yamazaki Mazak are located in Florence, Kentucky. For more information on Mazak Optonics’ products and solutions, visit www.mazakoptonics.com, email sales@mazaklaser.com or call 847.252.4500.