Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products LLC (KAAP), a joint venture of Kobe Steel Ltd., Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Toyota Tsusho Corp., broke ground on its second expansion project in the past year in Bowling Green, Ky. The company will add an 87,000-square-foot facility to house new furnaces, casting machines and forging presses in an effort to meet increasing demand for high-quality precision aluminum components for the auto industry. The $66 million expansion is expected to create 100 full-time jobs. In November 2012, KAAP invested $11 million to build a new 39,000-square-foot building and a production line to produce cast-aluminum bars for use in car air conditioners. That expansion included a melting furnace, holding furnace, horizontal casting line and homogenizing furnace.