Chennai's Automotive and Auto Components Industry Updates!

[ranga]

Originally Posted by Kewl Batty

looks like the entire auto sector in TN is at stake by CITU led strikes!
not only in chennai, coimbatore pricol, hosur ashok leyland, etc...

This is precisely the reason why TVS Motors set up expansion of production and relocation of scooty mfg in Mysore.CITU is like an epidemic which is more prevalent in Kerala,West Bengal that has crippled the industries there.It spread its influence in to A.P and TN affecting the industrial growth in these states to..Fortunately its influence is minimal in Maharashtra,Rajasthan , NCR along with Karnataka in the south.Gujarat is completely free of this Marxists trade union and therefore is free of industrial unrests,strikes and lockouts.

[Subra]

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus...0908031455.htm

New Delhi (PTI): The country's second largest car maker Hyundai Motor India will ramp up its capacity by about 20 per cent from September onwards to cater to increased demand in the overseas markets and plans to hire 1,000 people this month.

The company has already increased its output by about 25 per cent since July and its workforce by over 1,000 employees at its two plants in Chennai.

"We have started the third shift from July 10 at plant-I, for which we hired over 1,000 people. We will start the third shift at the plant-II from September 14 and induct another 1,000 people this month for this," Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) MD and CEO H S Lheem told reporters on the sidelines of inducting 100 students volunteer for traffic management here.

After increasing its output last month, the company is currently producing about 2,000 units per day and it will go up by 400 units more once the third shift at plant-II starts.

Mr. Lheem said the company's total workforce will cross the 12,000 mark after induction of new staff this month.

"We had very good sales in July. In domestic sales, we increased over 50 per cent and sold more than 23,000 units," he said, adding that the demand in export markets was growing.

The company has sold 45,543 units in July, of which 22,350 cars were handed over to overseas customers.

Besides, HMIL would also increase its headcount to 800 Indian staff from the existing 210 people at its R&D centre in Hyderabad.

On the export front, the country's largest car exporter asked the government to provide incentives to compete with other auto makers from different exporting nations.

"The Korean government has already announced the completion of a free trade agreement with all the members of the European Union. All the actual import duties of all smaller cars within 5 years and bigger cars within 3 years will be nullified in all the EU countries.

"We are asking the government to consider a free trade agreement with the EU or the government should provide the same amount of incentives, otherwise we will loose our competitiveness against Korean products," Mr. Lheem said.

The EU countries contribute over 55 per cent to HMIL's total export volume, he added.

"The Indian government provides us the focus market scheme, but major export markets of all the EU countries are missed in this scheme. The government should expand the scope of focus market scheme," Mr. Lheem said.

He said the company's decision to shift the production of i20 to a European country is also to save transportation costs and all the import duties imposed in the EU.

Asked about its proposed smaller car than Santro, Mr. Lheem said, "After shifting of the i20 volume, we can develop some additional volume for our smaller car than Santro. We will introduce the model by 2011, which will be produced exclusively from Chennai facility. It will be marketed in other countries also."

[jaleelmalik]

Originally Posted by Kewl Batty

looks like the entire auto sector in TN is at stake by CITU led strikes!
not only in chennai, coimbatore pricol, hosur ashok leyland, etc...

During my UP school days, I had four classmates belonging to Tamil Nadu.
RV Krishnan, Sree Ram ,Suresh & one more guy. Kirushnan's Dad was working with TVS. All these four guys joined my school in 1978, subsequent to transfer of their dads to Trivandrum.

These guys used to make a joke by telling that :

One Malayali = Hard Working
Two Malayalees = Union Formation
Three Malayalees = Flag in front of Organization
Four Malayalees = Strike
Five Malayalees = Closure of the Factory

I am so sad to note that the very same situation has now grasped Tamil Nadu. Once, TN was secind only to Punjab with respect to industrial development. I am in favour of trade unions, from the view point that the Capitalists should not exploit the labourers.

But in the present day context, it is the trade union leaders who exploit the investors and their own followers - the workers themselves.

Real blood sucking parasites are these so called TU leaders.

[die4chennai]

CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: JK Tyre could soon join the bandwagon of radial tyre

companies setting up shops near Chennai. The New Delhi-based
corporate group
has held preliminary discussions with the Tamil Nadu government as part of evaluating possible locations to establish a car radial facility. Multiple sources, including analysts and senior officials in the auto industry, told ET the company is considering TN and Karnataka to house its greenfield unit.

A top official from an auto MNC said JK Tyre has been scouting for land in the Sriperumbadur belt so that it could be located close to the OEs in the bustling auto corridor. The project would entail an investment of Rs 1,600 crore in phases. Company officials, when contacted, said “nothing has been finalised yet.”

Though it has a sizeable land bank in Mysore — where JK Tyre had acquired the erstwhile Vikrant tyres in the early ‘90s — the tyre major is also keen on setting up a facility in Tamil Nadu given the concentration of several domestic and global car and commercial vehicle manufacturers in the state, an industry expert in the know told ET on condition of anonymity.

It is also reliably learnt that a senior official from Apollo Tyre has joined J K Tyres. According to an industry tracker, Chennai has been consolidating its position as the Detroit of the country. If Hyundai and Ford were the first movers into the auto corridor of Sriperumbadur, the entry of Nissan in recent times too has enlarged the business pie in this area. Also, in all likelihood, Peugeot could settle for TN, even as the race for luring investments is hotting up among southern states.

ET had recently reported that the unit could be for a Rs 300-crore car radial factory. The company has 7 tyre plants with an aggregate capacity of about 16 million tyres per annum and a tonnage of over 1,000 metric tonnes per day. For the quarter ending June 2009, JK Tyre had reported a net profit of Rs 40.7 crore (Rs 20.2 crore).

JK Tyre VC-MD Raghupati Singhania said: “Radialisation of commercial tyres segment is catching up at a faster pace. The growth momentum shall continue in the coming months with benefits available from recent completion of Truck Radial Expansion Project of doubling the capacity to eight lakh tyres per annum involving a capital expenditure of Rs 315 crore.”

It may be recalled that JK Tyre, which has an off-the-road (OTR) plant at Mysore, had announced expansion plans to tap the demand from the OTR segment. TN has been widening its net to attract investments into the auto sector even as it is gearing up for the MoU signing ceremony with French tyre biggie Michelin. Apollo is setting up a mega radial tyre unit on 135-acres in Oragadam. Expected to go onstream by this year-end, it has committed an initial investment of Rs 500 crore.

Warburg Pincus-funded ATC Tires inked an MoU in June 2008 with the TN government to set up a unit for exports in the product-specific SEZ in Gangaikondam industrial park. Due to global meltdown, the $190 million-plus company has been delaying commercial production, sources said. It had committed to invest Rs 300 crore in three years and another Rs 100 crore thereafter.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/4849916.cms

[die4chennai]

[tokavin]

he country's second largest car maker Hyundai Motor India will ramp up its capacity by about 20 percent from September onwards to cater to increased demand in the overseas markets and plans to hire 1,000 people this month.


The company has already increased its output by about 25 percent since July and its workforce by over 1,000 employees at its two plants in Chennai.

"We have started the third shift from July 10 at plant-I, for which we hired over 1,000 people. We will start the third shift at the plant-II from September 14 and induct another 1,000 people this month for this," Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) MD and CEO H S Lheem told reporters on the sidelines of inducting 100 students volunteer for traffic management here.

After increasing its output last month, the company is currently producing about 2,000 units per day and it will go up by 400 units more once the third shift at plant-II starts.

Lheem said the company's total workforce will cross the 12,000 mark after induction of new staff this month.

"We had very good sales in July. In domestic sales, we increased over 50 percent and sold more than 23,000 units," he said, adding that the demand in export markets was growing.

The company has sold 45,543 units in July, of which 22,350 cars were handed over to overseas customers.

Besides, HMIL would also increase its headcount to 800 Indian staff from the existing 210 people at its R&D centre in Hyderabad.

On the export front, the country's largest car exporter asked the government to provide incentives to compete with other auto makers from different exporting nations.

"The Korean government has already announced the completion of a free trade agreement with all the members of the European Union. All the actual import duties of all smaller cars within 5 years and bigger cars within 3 years will be nullified in all the EU countries.

"We are asking the government to consider a free trade agreement with the EU or the government should provide the same amount of incentives, otherwise we will loose our competitiveness against Korean products," Lheem said.

The EU countries contribute over 55 percent to HMIL's total export volume, he added.

"The Indian government provides us the focus market scheme, but major export markets of all the EU countries are missed in this scheme. The government should expand the scope of focus market scheme," Lheem said.

He said the company's decision to shift the production of i20 to a European country is also to save transportation costs and all the import duties imposed in the EU.

Asked about its proposed smaller car than Santro, Lheem said, "After shifting of the i20 volume, we can develop some additional volume for our smaller car than Santro. We will introduce the model by 2011, which will be produced exclusively from Chennai facility. It will be marketed in other countries also."

[die4chennai]

Really good to see hyundai in an expansion mode esp. after what happened recently with the labour union...

Kudos for keeping their spirits up..

[kg4129]

He said the company's decision to shift the production of i20 to a European country is also to save transportation costs and all the import duties imposed in the EU.

This is not good sign for India as a whole and Chennai in particular, sfiting one of it's production unit to EU...

[Kewl Batty]

Mahindra Renault JV to take a relook at product portfolio

MUMBAI: Mahindra Renault, the 51:49 joint venture that makes the mid- sized sedan, Logan, is taking a relook at its current single-product
portfolio due to a sharp fall in sales. Among the options being considered is a makeover of the existing product for which the JV will also see fund infusion from both equity partners.

The Logan is currently seeing sales of 500 units a month, a sharp fall from 1,200 units till January this year. The sedan had also seen peak sales of 2,200 units a month in the initial months following its launch in mid-2007.

While it is not clear how much the two partners will invest — the two companies have so far invested about Rs 500 crore in the project - cash infusion is vital to maintain the company healthy, said a person close to the development. When contacted, M&M president (automotive) Pawan Goenka said: “There is no finality on new product plans for India. While we have realigned our production to market demands and cut targets for the current year, we are serious about the joint venture. “

According to Renault India managing director Marc Nassif, “Our determination to succeed in the Indian market remains undiluted. Renault’s India operations cannot be seen independently of Renault’s global strategies, and in the current global economic downturn, we have had to take a very rational view of our investment decisions. Though our India plans may have slowed down a bit, our intent and determination to succeed is absolutely in place.”

As part of a product revamp, Renault is learnt to be giving the Logan a facelift and adapting the product to the new emission norms coming into effect in 2010. M&M chairman Keshub Mahindra admitted at the company’s recent annual general meeting that the joint venture was posting losses. The company’s net loss totalled Rs 490 crore in 2008-09 (including a one-time write-off) compared with a loss Rs 42.64 crore in the previous year.

Mahindra formed the JV with French car maker Renault in 2005-end to make the mid-sized sedan Logan to cash in on the growing demand for cars in the world’s second-fastest growing economy.

The initial gameplan for India was that the Logan car would be made from M&M’s Nashik facility and subsequent new launches would be manufactured at their new Chennai facility, while the distribution work would have been carried out by M&M. However, the recent slowdown forced the joint venture to defer investments in the Chennai units and to also go slow on new launches. Globally, too, Renault has taken a hit on profitability. The Renault automotive sector has posted a loss of E 2.71 billion(Rs 18,428 crore) for the first six months of 2009, against a net profit of E1.58 billion (Rs 10,744 crore) for the corresponding period.

Mercedes to invest e700 m in Chennai plant

HYDERABAD: Mercedes-Benz plans to invest e700 million to increase the production capacity of its trucks in its manufacturing plant in Chennai.
While the infrastructure is expected to address future expansion plans of the company, details of the time frame of investment were not disclosed.

The company currently operates a manufacturing base in Pune with independent assembly facilities for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. The company rolled out close to 4,000 units in India last year where it has a 38% market share among passenger car makers. But the company said it would register a lower sales volume this year due to the unfavourable market conditions.

“The first half of the year was difficult in terms of sales. We have sold 1,500 units so far this year and we hope the second half would be better as retail orders are gaining pace and customers are approaching banks for car loans,” said Wilfried G Albur, managing director and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz India.

The German car maker is also on course to increase its headcount three-fold at its R&D centre in Bangalore by next year and will invest close to Rs 450 crore on infrastructure and people-related costs. The company that operates in 25 cities in India has about 1,000 people on its rolls and operates through 11 dealers in the country.

Mercedes-Benz is currently a division of its parent company, Daimler. As per industry estimates, about 8,000 passenger cars were sold by luxury car makers in India last year.

[Kewl Batty]

Good to see Mercedez coming to Chennai! Another Major in the Auto Corridor of Sriperumbudur - Orgadam.

[Subra]

Originally Posted by Kewl Batty

Good to see Mercedez coming to Chennai! Another Major in the Auto Corridor of Sriperumbudur - Orgadam.

Nope, the article refers to the Daimler project. Daimler is the parent company that owns Mercedez-Benz. The pune plant produces both cars and trucks from the Mercedez line. The chennai plant is being planned for other Daimler truck types and some India specific yet-to-be-developed products. This is my understanding from old articles.

[die4chennai]

In both Merceds articles and hyundai expansion articles, There is one thing that shud be noted..
Both of them increasing their R&D centers to a considerable level elsewhere(Hyderabad in case of hyundai and Bangalore in case of Mercedes)

Will we still be restricted towards just manufacturing? Can't we ever penetrate into R&D?

[Subra]

Originally Posted by die4chennai

In both Merceds articles and hyundai expansion articles, There is one thing that shud be noted..
Both of them increasing their R&D centers to a considerable level elsewhere(Hyderabad in case of hyundai and Bangalore in case of Mercedes)

Will we still be restricted towards just manufacturing? Can't we ever penetrate into R&D?

I think we lost it due to various reasons. GM, Daimler etc went to B'lore before their manufacturing operations in the country. Hyundai went to Hyd because we didn't provide them free land (they were demanding 30 acres). Having said that, Chennai has a good no of R and D and back office centres catering to the auto industry.

a) Mahindra Research Valley - Huge center with test tracks, product development etc.
b) Hyundai R and D center - Small compared to the Hyd one, operating in their manufacturing facility.
c) Ahsok Leyland - R and D center.
d) Ashok-Leyland - Nissan R and D center.
e) Renault-Nissan Business processing Center.
f) Ford Business processing center.
g) Mahindra-Satyam auto vertical is based in Chennai

etc.

[die4chennai]

Originally Posted by Subra

I think we lost it due to various reasons. GM, Daimler etc went to B'lore before their manufacturing operations in the country. Hyundai went to Hyd because we didn't provide them free land (they were demanding 30 acres). Having said that, Chennai has a good no of R and D and back office centres catering to the auto industry.

a) Mahindra Research Valley - Huge center with test tracks, product development etc.
b) Hyundai R and D center - Small compared to the Hyd one, operating in their manufacturing facility.
c) Ahsok Leyland - R and D center.
d) Ashok-Leyland - Nissan R and D center.
e) Renault-Nissan Business processing Center.
f) Ford Business processing center.
g) Mahindra-Satyam auto vertical is based in Chennai

etc.

[Kewl Batty]

Originally Posted by Subra

Nope, the article refers to the Daimler project. Daimler is the parent company that owns Mercedez-Benz. The pune plant produces both cars and trucks from the Mercedez line. The chennai plant is being planned for other Daimler truck types and some India specific yet-to-be-developed products. This is my understanding from old articles.

yes.. the article says its an investment to increase the production capacity.. so it must be Daimler.

So, does it mean tat most of the auto majors (if not all) have a plant in Chennai?

[tokavin]

We have most of the auto companies except for
1) GM motors
2) Chrysler(may come 2 TN)
3) FIAT
4) KIA(may come 2 TN)
5) Peuguet(may come 2 TN)
6) NAZA Motors(don know about India Investment)
7) Toyota
8) Suzuki
9) M.Benz
10) Mazda
11) Isuzu
12) Volkswagen
13) Skoda

Others please fill up the remaining companies

[Subra]

Originally Posted by tokavin

We have most of the auto companies except for
1) GM motors
2) Chrysler(may come 2 TN)
3) FIAT
4) KIA(may come 2 TN)
5) Peuguet(may come 2 TN)
6) NAZA Motors(don know about India Investment)
7) Toyota
8) Suzuki
9) M.Benz
10) Mazda
11) Isuzu
12) Volkswagen
13) Skoda

Others please fill up the remaining companies

14) Honda
15) Mahindra and Mahindra (have plans to setup a plant)
16) Tata

[tokavin]

We should have got volkswagen.
Thats a big miss for tamilnadu.
AP should have got volkswagen and put it near chennai (TADA)..
Atleast Chennai would have been benefited indirectly.
They grabbed from us and they lost it to maharastra.

[Kewl Batty]

17) Audi
18) Bajaj


This article lists out major auto plants in Chennai Region..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automob...try_in_Chennai

[tokavin]

List of Tyre Factories in Tamil Nadu

1) MRF
2) Michelin
3) JK Tyres
4) Apollo Tyres