Ken Hopkins, Timken Co.’s former president of needle roller bearings, has been named president and chief operating officer of Koyo Bearings USA.

Koyo was formed by JTEKT Corp. after its acquisition of Timken’s needle roller bearings business. The $330 million sale closed Dec. 31.

The Koyo unit will be headquartered here, with about 75 people — mostly former Timken needle bearing employees — in a Belden Village area office, Hopkins said. Parent company Koyo Corp. of USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based JTEKT, is headquartered in Westlake.

Koyo Bearings will manufacture needle roller bearings under the Koyo Torrington Needle Roller Bearings brand, with a range of needle roller bearings, bearing assemblies and loose needles for automotive and industrial applications.

The sale didn’t affect local production workers. Manufacturing facilities in Georgia and South Carolina, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and China became part of JTEKT.

Timken purchased the needle roller bearings business in 2003 when it acquired Torrington from Ingersoll-Rand. JTEKT has said it is committed to the automotive industry, where Timken has been paring its commitment.

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