Gujarat Auto Industries Thread

[NitinPatel]

Peugeot-Gujarat govt meet to discuss the fate of Sanand project next week

Senior executives of French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen will meet Gujarat government officials on May 2 to discuss the future of Rs 4000-crore Sanand project.

Last year Peugeot announced an investment of Rs 4,000 crore in Gujarat by setting up an integrated manufacturing unit, engine and gearbox plant to manufacture cars in Sanand near Ahmedabad. The state had signed a state support agreement(SSA) and allotted 600 acres of land for first phase of the project. In November last year the company laid foundation stone of the plant but could not pay the state govt the first installment of Rs 25 crore.

Early this week Peugeot’s Asia head Gregoire Olivier said in Beijing that the company may not go ahead with its Sanand project and would look at its global partner General Motors for launching cars in India. “There are a lot of other ways to enter India now that they don’t require us to put euro 600 million on the table,” he said.

In February this year, General Motors and PSA Peugeot announced a global alliance in which GM bought a 7% stake in Peugeot. GM India has car manufacturing plant at Halol in central Gujarat.

[CivilEngineer079]

Force Motors in talks with Gujarat govt to set up facility

Pune-based Force Motors Ltd is in talks with the Gujarat government to set up a facility to expand its commercial vehicle business.

“We are awaiting approval from the board regarding the new unit in Gujarat,” managing director Prasan Firodia said in a telephone interview. “Once that is done, we shall make an announcement.”

The maker of Tempo, Trax and Traveller brands will firm up plans for the Gujarat factory in another two months, Firodia said, but declined to provide any investment details.

Force plans to invest around Rs.2,000 crore into the project for which the company will acquire 700-800 acres, either in Sanand or Halol, a Gujarat government official said, requesting anonymity.

Force manufactures its commercial vehicles at a Pithampur facility in Madhya Pradesh. The factory operates at 65% of its full capacity. However, with new products being added to the range, the capacity will be utilized very soon, said Firodia.

Meanwhile, after launching Force One—its maiden offering in the sports utility vehicle segment, which has met with a tepid sales response—Force is gearing up to introduce a seven to nine-seater van that will target the personal transport segment and will compete with Toyota Innova, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and Mahindra Xylo.

Force will produce the vehicle under licence from Daimler AG and plans to invest Rs.350 crore on the project. It will be ready for launch early next year, said Firodia.

Commenting on the response to Force One, which went on sale in October, he said the company has sold close to 1,200 units so far—a number that fails to clear the halfway mark of the original sales target. The firm wanted to sell at least 4,000 units in the first year of its launch.

Firodia attributed the tepid response to the limited number of dealers. The company has 19 dealers and plans to scale it up to 30 by the end of this fiscal year.

There is more to the lukewarm sales response of the Force One than sales network, according to Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India magazine. “It’s an outdated vehicle for its price,” Sorabjee said. “It lacks the sophistication which Indian customers want today.”

At Rs.11.17 lakh (ex-showroom in Mumbai), Force One competes with Mahindra XUV 500 (Rs.11.31) and Tata Motors Ltd’s Aria (Rs.11.61 lakh).

Sales of utility vehicles expanded 16% in the fiscal ended March 2012 to 367,012 units, according to lobby group Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

People typically associate brands from companies like Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd with sports utility vehicles, said a salesperson at one of company’s Mumbai dealers, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Hence “they are sceptical of giving a new, unknown brand an opportunity and are wary of buying it”.

Firodia said while his company may be facing the challenge associated with the brand in the metro cities, its not the same in smaller towns where “people are well aware of Force’s lineage”. He expects the five-month-old model to gain traction once the dealer network is ramped up.

Force also plans to launch a higher trim version of Force One with four-wheel drive, airbag and other features. “It’s under homologation and should be ready for launch in the next two to three months,” he said. Homologation is the certification process for vehicles to ensure these are roadworthy and match government criteria.

[karkal]

Originally Posted by NitinPatel

Peugeot-Gujarat govt meet to discuss the fate of Sanand project next week

Senior executives of French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen will meet Gujarat government officials on May 2 to discuss the future of Rs 4000-crore Sanand project.

Any updates ?

[GJ10]

Gujarat to be or not to be Auto hub

The dream of Chief Minister Narendra Modi to make Gujarat the auto hub of India is facing a bumpy ride right now.

Even as French automaker PSA Peugeot Citreon is believed to have more or less given up on its plans to set up a car manufacturing plant in Sanand, Maruti Suzuki India Limited is also learnt to have downscaled its proposed investment plans in the state.

The twin blows could be a big setback for the state’s ambitions to emerge as a car manufacturing hub of the country.

Maruti Suzuki had originally announced that it planned to set up a 10 lakh cars per year plant at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore in the first phase of its expansion in the state.

Reliable sources say the company has decided to start work at its Gujarat plant, which will come up near Bechraji in Mehsana, but with a significantly lower capacity than what was announced earlier.

“The Mehsana plant will have the capacity to produce 1 lakh cars in a year initially as against 10 lakh cars planned earlier. However, the capacity would be upwards in the future,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.

The country’s largest car maker had said that it would invest Rs 6,000 crore in the first phase of Gujarat plant. The investment figures following the downscaling plans could not be immediately ascertained. A Maruti Suzuki spokesperson said he was not aware of such development, while industries minister Saurabh Patel claimed there was no change in the plans of Maruti Suzuki.

“We have not received any communication from Maruti Suzuki in this regards,” Patel said, when contacted by DNA. The company is close to acquiring around 600 acre of land in Bechraji for the plant, and an agreement is likely with the government in coming weeks.

In the wake of economic uncertainty and fall in car sales, Maruti Suzuki had earlier said that it was delaying its expansion plans for a few months. The company had also said that it would start the Gujarat plant only after capacity of its Manesar plant was fully utilised.

The company’s current capacity is around 13 lakh cars a year, which would go up to 17 lakh units in the next couple of years. The company sold 1.13 lakh cars in 2011-12, almost 11% lower than 2011-12 when it sold 1.27 lakh cars.

As far as Peugeot’s proposed Rs 4,000 crore plant at Sanand is concerned, the government seems to have more or less given up hope. “The chances of Peugeot setting up the plant at Sanand are low now,” conceded a senior official.

However, Peugeot claimed that it had only decided to postpone and reschedule its Sanand project. The company attributed this to European market situation, which had strongly hurt its cash flows. “We still believe that Sanand is going to be a successful cluster,” said a Peugeot spokesperson in an email reply.

According to government officials, Peugeot is yet to even pay for the land allotted to it at Sanand. At the recent Beijing Auto Show, Gregoire Olivier, head of Asian operations of PSA Peugeot Citroen had said that the company was exploring possibility of manufacturing cars at the Halol plant of General Motors, its new global alliance partner, and the Sanand plant plan may be scrapped.

Always a bit dubious when the "anonymous sources" come out to play in election years.

But clearly Maruti and especially Peugeot have both got a lot of internal problems going on. Lets see what actually happens, worst case scenario would be that the State Govt has an already confirmed huge site available at Sanand near to Ford/Tata Motors and DMIC to sell on to another company.

[CivilEngineer079]

Biggest automobile parts hub planned in Gujarat

India's Detroit is changing gears. After top car-makers, Gujarat will now house one of country's biggest component parks.

Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), the nodal agency for the country's auto component industry, plans to set up its first supplier park over 1,100 acres of land, preferably in Ahmedabad.

In a first, ACMA, which has about 700 members contributing 85% of the total output in the organised sector, will hold its executive committee meeting in Ahmedabad in June. The park aims to bring together automotive component manufacturers, suppliers and service providers in one location to achieve synergies and cost benefits.

Vinnie Mehta, executive director, ACMA, said, "This is a special meeting as Ahmedabad was not earmarked for the meeting when ACMA planned its year. The meeting and plan to set up the automotive suppliers' park in the state is recognition of Gujarat as an emerging hub for auto."

About 55 auto component manufacturing companies, including Setco Automotive, Bajaj Motors among others, have expressed interest in setting up units in the park. The investment details are being finalised.

"Almost all members of ACMA want to set up units in the park. We would like to be an integrated park, which will be a concentration of all aspects important to the auto industry," said Mehta. Analysts say the slowdown may prompt car-makers to marginally delay their plans but Gujarat's best is yet to come.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/13180893.cms

[maulik02]

Korea’s Hyosung set to vroom into Ahmedabad
Bikemaker Plans To Set Up . 300-cr Plant
Ankur Jain | TNN

Ahmedabad: Gujarat’s Detroit dream seems to be on a fast lane. After Hero MotoCorp announcing a Rs 1,100-crore plant in the state, Korea’s Hyosung superbikes are all set to get a madein-Gujarat tag.
Pune-based DSK group, which has taken over assembling, distribution and servicing business of Hyosung superbikes in India from Garware Motors, is planning to set up Rs 300 crore plant in Gujarat, preferably near Ahmedabad.
Korean S&T Motors’ Hyosung entered the market with its 650 cc bikes in 2011. Garware Motors assembled bikes at a unit in Wai in Satara district of Maharastra.The current plant at Satara has a capacity to assemble 10 bikes a day.
“We are looking for a 100-acre land plot around Ahmedabad. Initially, we decided to base ourselves around Pune but because of little government support, we have decided to move out,” said Shirish Kulkarni,
managing director, DSK Motowheels, the DSK group’s new entity for the bike business.
The company is looking at a capacity of over 10,000 bikes per annum by 2015. Kulkarni said they will source components from local firms in Gujarat. Industry observers say such plants will boost the state’s component making industry.
Times View
Ahmedabad has come a long way since attracting the Tata Nano to Sanand in 2008. The large labour force that the numerous upcoming auto units are bound to attract will test the city's infrastructure. The government should ensure more housing, schools, hospitals and entertainment zones to meet the rush of automakers to the ‘Detroit of the East’.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defau...&ViewMode=HTML

[Meeeet]

Maruti starts looking for second land parcel in Gujarat

Barely two weeks after signing an agreement with the Gujarat government for setting up a manufacturing facility at Hansalpur near Mehsana, leading passenger carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has sought for more land from the state government for phase two of the project. It has been allotted 700 acres of land at the site located around 100 kilometers(km) from Ahmedabad.

Confirming the development a senior government official said on grounds of anonymity, "Yes, Maruti is looking for another land parcel of around 300 acres for phase two of the project. It could be used to house the company's vendors or for the company's own capacity expansion plans." The land would not be exactly adjacent to the plot allotted to the company in Hansalpur, but is likely to be around 10-12 km away from the site, the official added.

MSIL signed a state support agreement (SSA) with the state government for purchase of land near Mehsana on June 2. The company said that it would invest Rs 4,000 crore in the first phase to set up a 250,000 units per annum plant by 2015-16. The new facility will take MSIL's combined capacity to two million units in three to four year's time. The company's Gurgaon and Manesar plants will have a net installed capacity of 17.5 lakh units per anuum once a third assembly line (Manesar C plant with 2.5 lakh units annually) goes onstream by mid-2013-14.
A top level delegation comprising Shinzo Nakanishi, managing director and CEO of MSIL and R C Bhargava, chairman, MSIL had met Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in May last year to discuss potentials for setting up its first plant outside Haryana.

Maruti Suzuki officials could not be reached for a comment on the same.

Speaking at the SSA signing ceremony, Nakanishi had said that with taking the first step in Gujarat, Maruti Suzuki is entering into a new phase of its business life.

As the industry crosses over four million cars by 2015-16, Maruti's Gujarat plant would take its combined capacity to two million units by the same time. The Hansalpur plant is thus critical to MSIL if it wants to maintain its 50 per cent market share in the passenger car industry in the country.

http://www.business-standard.com/ind...in-guj/477846/

[Kaushal]

Volvo planning factory at Sanand?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/15050911.cms

Watching the Indian luxury car market from the back seat for a long time, Swedish carmaker Volvo Auto India is now taking the wheel. In all likelihood, the Detroit of East - Sanand near Ahmedabad - may play host.

Well-placed sources with the Gujarat chief minister's office say that Volvo Auto India, which is backed by Chinese auto major Geely Automobile, is scouting for land to park a semiknocked down plant. A team of top Volvo executives is likely to meet chief minister Narendra Modi in August.

Volvo, which entered Indian market in 2007, currently imports cars as completely-built units and is near to zeroing in on Sanand for a local assembly unit. For Sanand, Volvo will be the first exclusive luxury car brand to have a facility in the region. Sources in the company said that Volvo has to take on German luxury carmakers like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi and though it has been able to keep prices competitive till now, assembling cars locally will work best in the longer run.

"The company has identified two locations, one in Sanand and other near Chennai. But with the company's major holding in Chinese hands and given growing ties between Gujarat and China, we hope it will be Sanand," said a source close to the development. However, company officials denied having decided on Sanand.

"We are looking aggressively at the Indian luxury car market and aim at having a 15% share in the segment by 2020. The decision to identify a location is taken by our team in the US who are looking at the various options. Nothing has been finalized yet," said Tomas Ernberg, managing director, Volvo Auto India.

[meetmus2fa]

NEW DELHI: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will meet senior executives of Suzuki Motor Corp in Japan next week to persuade them to shift the entire operations of its Indian arm Maruti Suzuki to his state from Haryana, evoking parallels with the strategy he employed four years ago to lure the Tata Group.

A person familiar with Modi's plans said the latest outbreak of labour trouble at Maruti's factory at Manesar in Haryana, where workers attacked managers and set fire to property on Wednesday, has opened a "Sanand kind of situation" and the Gujarat government is keen to use it to its advantage.

In October 2008, Modi famously convinced Tata Group boss Ratan Tata to shift a factory to build low-cost car Nano to Sanand in his state, after a two-year-long agitation by farmers over land compensation hobbled production at the original plant in Singur in West Bengal.

Modi will set aside most of July 25 for "detailed discussions" with Suzuki and Maruti top brass, the person said. "It shows his seriousness about bringing the company to Gujarat."

A senior government official who will accompany Modi to Japan says the CM was due to meet Suzuki chairman Osamu Suzuki and the head of the Indian unit Shinzo Nakanishi at the carmaker's headquarters in Hamamatsu. Modi is travelling to Japan - his last visit to a foreign country before elections in December - for five days from July 22 to woo businesses to invest in Gujarat.

Maruti, India's largest carmaker, might need little convincing from Modi due to the company's troubled history with workers at Manesar. Last year, the company lost production worth more than 2,500 crore due to weeks of labour unrest at the same plant, which significantly depleted its market share. The latest round of violence has claimed a life of a senior manager and could shut the Manesar plant for a month.

Last March, Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava told ET that the company will cease car production at Gurgaon, where another factory is located, and turn it into an engine hub. He said Maruti will shift the production from Gurgaon to Gujarat where it is building a factory at Mehsana. Maruti also has a pre-export inspection facility near Mundra port.

Modi has made no secret of his ambitions to turn Gujarat into a global hub for the automobile sector. The only car manufacturer of note, before Modi came to power in Gujarat, was General Motors, which established a manufacturing facility at Halol in Vadodara district in the 1990s.

Under Modi's watch, Ford India, French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, Bombardier of Canada and Asia Motor Works, a heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer, have followed Tata Motors to Sanand. Bike maker Hero MotoCorp's officials are scouting for land for a manufacturing plant.

Source :- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/15048133.cms

[desiguy66]

Peugeot is out due to lack of down payments. These journalist need to do better research!

[GJ10]

also AMW is at Bhuj and Bombardier is at Savli. Idiot journo has written that all are at Sanand. Similarly, Hero Motocorp have already signed a deal to set up operations at Halol (where GM are based).

But most importantly, Govt of Gujarat industries minister Saurabh Patel has come out and flatly denied all this recent media speculation by officially stating that Modis visit to Suzuki will have no such attempt to encourage Maruti Suzuki to leave Haryana.

[Arul Murugan]

Ford - Car Manufacturing Plant, Sanand (Gujarat)



Description : Ford India Car Manufacturing Plant at Sanand, Gujarat (5 million sq.ft.)
Client : M/s. Ford India Limited


http://www.mukeshassociates.com/indu...nsultants.html

[Nick11]

Guy's any update of our Detroit(Sanand)

[GJ10]

A quirky little documentary about how the Nano factory has affected farmers around Sanand.

[tryindiffdrugsngirls]

lol no paint jobs on houses no roads garbage lying on the sides and a Limo in the middle And that's what people are doing wrong. Spending on gold, cars and buying houses. Same story every where and once money is gone go back to protesting

[GJ10]

Theres very little they could do with their money that would be a better than buying Gold, Land and Houses. Gujaratis dont squander wealth easily, these guys and their families will be set for generations.

It reminds me of Jamnagar after Reliance/Essar, the only thing that is different is there was no mention of private education for the kids, but am sure even that will come with time.

[Nick11]

[Nick11]

Osamu Suzuki meets Narendra Modi with delegation

A 15-member delegation led by Japan’s Suzuki motor corporation Chairman Osamu Suzuki paid courtesy visit of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar on Friday.

Shri Suzuki and other delegation members thanked the state government for its cooperation in setting up Suzuki’s auto car manufacturing project near Bechraji in north Gujarat.

Suzuki motor corporation intends to open an Automobile Engineering College Institute in Gujarat. The company also has announced training of 500 youth engineers from Gujarat in Suzuki’s Japan plant.

A township based on Japanese culture, a food restaurant and other facilities and involvement of Japanese auto vendors in the project were other things discussed in the meeting between Shri Suzuki and Modi.

Suzuki in his meeting with Modi conveyed him a plan to set up a skill development centre in Gujarat.

“I came to thank Mr Modi because he visited me in Japan, and I came (to India) to attend AGM of Maruti,” Suzuki told reporters after the meeting.

Briefing media about what transpired in the meeting, Bhargava said Suzuki had informed Modi about MSI’s plans to set up a skill development centre in Gujarat and 500 people would initially go to Japan for training so that they get accustomed to the Japanese culture of working.

“Skill development is another area necessary for the establishment of a new industrial empire… Mr. Suzuki has mentioned about making a scheme by which up to 500 technicians, supervisors can be trained before we start production here,” Bhargava said.

An institute would also be set up in Gujarat so that people are trained on how to work in an industrial culture, he said.

Besides, a centre to train trainers would be established before starting production at the new plant near Mehsana.

Bhargava further said Suzuki also informed Modi about interest from a lot of vendors in Hamamatsu (Japan) for setting up factory in Gujarat after an investment seminar conducted by the Chief Minister there last month which was attended by about 430 people.

“They would be coming to Gujarat and seek your help,” Bhargava said quoting Suzuki.

In June this year, MSI had announced plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore, its biggest ever outside Haryana, to set up a new production facility in Gujarat by 2015-16.

Commenting on the commissioning of the plant, Bhargava said: “The start of production would primarily depend on market conditions. Unless the market in India continues to grow steadily, there is no point in expanding because we need to have customers to sell cars”.

Suzuki will visit the 700-acre site near Mehsana tomorrow. The overall capacity in the first phase will be 2.5 lakh units.

Bhargava further said the infrastructure should be set in accordance to Japanese standards and Suzuki has requested Modi to get those standards and specifications.

Besides, components suppliers of the company are also likely to make an equal amount of investment to set up their respective plants at the location.

The Gujarat unit will be the company’s seventh production plant and its biggest ever investment outside Haryana, where it has been based since its inception in 1983.

MSI’s announcement to set up its facility in Gujarat is among the big investments announced by auto firms, including Tata Motors’ Nano plant at Sanand and Ford’s second plant.

The plant in Gujarat will generate direct employment for over 2,000 people, MSI had said

[Nick11]

[meetmus2fa]

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

Mehsana, 25 August 2012

Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) Chairman Osamu Suzuki today visited the site here where its subsidiary Maruti Suzuki India plans to set up a new manufacturing unit at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.

Accompanied by Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R C Bhargava, company Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi and state government officials, Suzuki inspected the 700-acre site besides meeting local people.

“He (Osamu Suzuki) took an idea of the land allotted to us by the state government. The site and location of the plant is very good,” Bhargava told reporters.

MSI is planning to set up a new plant that will have a capacity to roll out 2.5 lakh cars annually by 2015-16, besides setting up a skill development centre.

Bhargava said no ground breaking ceremony for the plant, which is near Mehsana, could take place in next 2-3 months before infrastructure requirements are put in place.

Sounding upbeat about the location, he said: “The local people are also very good and welcoming. It is a great help for any company coming.”

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