Yamaha to ramp up production capacity by four lakh units

NEW DELHI: Two-wheeler maker India Yamaha Motor today said it will expand its production capacity by 4 lakh units next year with an investment of about Rs 50 crore. "We are targeting to increase our production and sales as we are witnessing very good demand for our products. We target to increase the capacity to 10 lakh units per annum from 6 lakh units at present," India Yamaha Motor National Business Head Roy Kurian told PTI. The company will enhance the capacity of its Surajpur plant in Uttar Pradesh, he added. Asked about the investment for this, Kurian said: "It will take about USD 10 million. We will only set up a separate line at the plant." India Yamaha Motor has another plant in Faridabad, where it manufacturers engines. "We are targeting to sell 10 lakh vehicles in the domestic market by 2014. This year we are expecting to sell 3.3 lakh units in the domestic market," Kurian said. He said the company is aiming to sell 4.5 lakh units in 2012 and 7 lakh units in 2013. "On the export front, we are hoping to sell 1.7 lakh units in this year. It will grow in the next few years," Kurian said, adding the company is expecting to sell a total of 10 lakh two-wheelers in 2013. Last year the company had sold a total of 3.8 lakh units, which included exports. When asked about dealer network, he said the company currently has a total sales point of about 1,200 outlets. "We are increasing our reach gradually. Next year, we will be adding 400-500 sales points," he said. The company is aiming to have 2,000-2,500 sales points across the country by 2014, he added. India Yamaha Motor had reported 26.82 per cent increase in its total sales in October 2011 at 47,240 units. During the month, the company's domestic sales stood at 38,229 units, up 20.25 per cent. Exports rose by 65.04 per cent to 9,011 units in last month.

MRF turnover crosses Rs 10,000 cr; eyes acquisitions abroad

CHENNAI: MRF today said its turnover for the first time has crossed Rs 10,000 crore in one year, becoming the first Indian tyre maker to achieve this mark, and announced plans to acquire plantations or companies abroad to neutralise the impact of high import duty on rubber. "MRF is the first Indian tyre company to have crossed the turnover of Rs 10,000 crore in one year. It registered growth in excess of 30 per cent over the previous year," MRF Chairman K M Mammen told reporters here. "In 2007, we reported Rs 5,000 crore. Rs 10,000 crore is something we are proud of, because we are the first Indian (tyre) company to achieve this," Mammen said. Talking about future plans, he said MRF was seriously thinking of going out of the country or acquire companies. "We are reviewing a lot of these wonderful ideas," he said. He also expressed hope that the company would double the revenues in future. Stating that the high import duty was having an impact on its bottom line, he said they were looking to acquire plantations in any region or acquire companies. When asked whether the company has zeroed in on any company or any plantations, he only said, "We are looking at the whole world." MRF exports tyres to 65 nations. It has seven facilities in the country. To another question whether putting up a factory outside India would be a feasible option for the company, Mammen said it was not a right option. "But taking over (of overseas companies) is fine. We are looking at all over the world. I would say, there are lot of opportunities in Europe, South east Asia, China," he said.

Govt probing complaints about ISO certified tyres

NEW DELHI: Consumer Affairs Minister K V Thomas today said his ministry is investigating the complaints of poor quality ISO certified tyres. "Some tyre companies, who have ISO certification, are not adhering to the quality standards. We have received complaints about poor quality tyres. We are seriously looking into them," Thomas said on the sidelines of an event here. The minister, however, did not reveal the name of the tyre companies which have violated the quality standards. Domestic manufacturers produce tyres for passenger, commercial as well as special defence vehicles. India's tyre industry, which comprises of around 39 companies, had manufactured 14.88 lakh tonnes of tyres last fiscal, according to the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association ( ATMA). Saying that products and services embossed with ISO certification give confidence to consumers, Thomas urged manufacturers and exporters to comply fully with the prescribed standards. Speaking on the eve of World Standards Day, he said national standards play a vital role in the present era of World Trade Organisation (WTO). India, which is a signatory to the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, should harmonise Indian standards, wherever feasible, with global standards, he said. "This (international standards) gives manufacturers confidence to reach out to the global markets with the knowledge that their products will compete globally and users can be confident and assured of the uniformity in the quality," Thomas noted. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body, has so far formulated over 18,600 Indian standards in accordance with the needs and priorities of the country. The BIS will continue its efforts in this direction so as to face the challenges of global competition in today's market scenario, he added.

Sahaganj plant: Dunlop says unions not keen on bipartite talks

KOLKATA: Ailing tyre-maker Dunlop India today said it was unable to reopen the Sahaganj plant as unions are against bipartite talks, while the West Bengal government asserted the company should reopen the unit first. "Dunlop is unable to implement the reopening proposed by us on October 21. Workers' unions are not willing to hold any meeting with us as they are insisting on a tripartite meeting. We have not received any government nod for it," group Chairman Pawan Ruia told PTI. "As such the fate of reopening of the Sahagunj factory now rests with the government," he said. Dunlop, which had announced suspension of work on October 8, had offered to lift the work suspension order in three divisions at its Sahagunj plant in a phased manner, subject to restoration of power. Ruia said trade unions should have approached the management for a discussion rather than wait for a direction from the government. "If the discussions failed to find a common ground of understanding, then the government could have intervened," he said. Ruia argued that the government had to play a proactive role in revitalising the plant as the management had spent over Rs 300 crore to clear old debts when the company was taken over from Manu Chabbria in 2005. The chairman accepted that the company was yet to clear certain dues of employees. CITU's Dunlop unit president Santoshree Chatterjee said last week the union had received two letters from the management asking for a meeting. As the government had already intervened, it should now be discussed at a tripartite meeting, he added Meanwhile, Labour Minister Purnendu Bose told reporters that "Dunlop has written a letter to the state government alleging that unions are averse to sit with the management for bipartite talks." The minister said that the government had asked the Dunlop authorities to reopen the factory and that there was need for a tripartite agreement. Reiterating government's demand for lifting suspension of work at the factory first, Bose said "various government authorities have Rs 30 crore arrears pending from Dunlop for providing electricity and municipal services and the government would like to know what it is going to do about it". The unions claimed that 328 employees who had retired after 2005 have also not received provident fund and gratuity payments, as also statutory dues of 319 employees who took early retirement. The company currently employs 870 permanent workers. According to the proposal from the Dunlop managment, the industrial products division will first be reopened, then the OTR tyre divsion (large tyres) and lastly the tyre divsion after installation of a 50 MW captive power plant.

Govt plans outright sale of TCIL; to appoint i-bankers by Dec

NEW DELHI: The Disinvestment Department is planning an outright sale of ailing Tyre Corporation of India (TCIL) and will appoint merchant bankers by mid-December. "The Department of Disinvestment (DoD) plans to engage an advisor to advise and manage TCIL's outright sale process successfully," a senior government official told PTI. The department aims to finalise appointment of merchant bankers by mid-December, the official added. West Bengal-based TCIL, engaged in manufacturing and marketing of automotive tyres, is wholly-owned by the government. Since 2002, the company which is awaiting revival from the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction ( BIFR) has been doing 100 per cent jobbing work for other tyre manufacturers like Ceat, Birla Tyres due to shortage of working capital. "The Advisor will be required to undertake tasks related to all aspects of the outright sale of TCIL like advising the government on the timing and the modalities of the outright sale process among others," he added. The Department of Heavy Industry in July 2011 had prepared a proposal for a complete sell-out of TCIL, as it has been reporting losses for the last several years. As at the end of March, 2011, the paid-up equity capital of TCIL stood at Rs 29.63 crore. The government holds 100 per cent stake in the company. In 2007, Parliament had cleared the strategic sale of TCIL. The company had turned sick in 1992 and was then referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR).

Car prices of Toyota, GM, Honda, Maruti & Audi set to go up on falling rupee

NEW DELHI: Car prices are set go up due to depreciation of rupee as higher input costs are forcing companies to look for an upward revision , despite the slowdown in the market. Companies like Toyota, General Motors, Honda, Maruti and Audi have said with falling rupee, they have to pay more for parts and components that are imported. "The rupee depreciation is adding to the cost and we will be going in for a revision from January next year," Toyota Kirloskar Deputy MD (sales & marketing) Sandeep Singh said. Toyota had last raised prices by 1%-1 .5% in October this year. "The hike could be of a similar range or even more." Toyota's vehicles like Innova and Fortuner have 50% imported parts and the falling rupee has made their costs higher. General Motors also spoke of a similar cost pressure and said it may have to go for a revision soon. "This is definitely putting a lot of pressure and is negatively impacting us. Obviously, we are looking at passing the extra cost to the market and now this may happen earlier than the previously-planned revision in January," General Motors India V-P P Balendran said. Apart from certain parts, GM India imports engines for models like Spark, U-VA , Aveo and Optra and costs of all these has been impacted. Luxury carmaker Audi said it may have to look at the prices to factor in rising costs. "With the continuous devaluation of the rupee vs the euro and the dollar, we cannot rule out the necessity of realigning our pricing," Audi India MD Michael Perschke said. Rupee has slipped further against dollar on Tuesday to touch 52.32. Maruti - that had raised prices of its diesel cars last week - also complained of the adverse impact from a weaker rupee, though adding that it had no plans to go for a price hike again. "The rupee depreciation is adversely impacting us and this is the worst movement of the currency against the US dollar . It has lost 15% in the last two months," Maruti Suzuki CFO Ajay Seth said. Maruti has both direct and indirect exposure to foreign currencies, while importing components and it imports Rs 8,000 crore worth of parts annually, Seth said. "At the same time, we also export cars and that is benefiting us at present. Considering both, we are impacted as a net importer. The situation is affecting our margins."

Maruti Manesar plant strike: Youth at component units lose jobs

BINOLA/MANESAR (GURGAON): The youth of the tiny Binola industrial belt close to Manesar - the epicentre of the ongoing stir by Maruti workers - are facing the worst. Villagers in the area claimed that 30%-35% of the ITI-trained workforce have been sacked from small plants involved in manufacturing of ancillary auto-parts because of the reduction in Maruti's production between 25% and 50% since June this year. However, these figures were not confirmed by Maruti Suzuki. Villagers, who survive on tenants, are not getting their rents. The Binola industrial belt has close to 60 small-and medium-scale industries. The situation has become so bad that the sacked ITI-trained workers have started working at construction sites to sustain their living. Arvind, who was employed with a small auto-ancillary firm in Binola said he has been sitting jobless for four months. "About 300 colleagues in my company have been asked to leave in the past three to four months. We can't even pay the rent." Now, he has got some whitewash work for some of the houses in the locality, thanks to Diwali. Even his house owner Rishi Prakash, is in a fix as his five tenants have been sacked. He can neither throw them out nor can meet his own need because of low income from rent. All this seems to be going against the striking Maruti workers. "Our young fellows have been left jobless by the handful of workers at the Maruti plant who have vested interest in stopping the production. The company should see that none of them are taken back to work and instead the company should hire fresh people," said Samay Singh, sarpanch of Binola village. This village has about 1,000 families and over 2,000 tenants. Their main source of income is rent. Villagers said in most of the cases their tenants have not been paying rent for the past few months. It's no different in the case of Manesar, which has over 5,000 tenants and a population of over 30,000 excluding tenants. "We have no land left for farming. Some villagers are engaged in small-time business like tiny grocery shops, while most have made one-room accommodations for rental purpose. Our prime source of income is severely affected," village sarpanch Dharambir said.

Pilz GmbH to open centres across the country

PUNE: Pilz GmbH, a Euro 168 million provider of safety systems and services for industrial automation, will open technical and sales centres across the country targeting mainly the automotive and wind energy sectors, its president and CEO, Renate Pilz, said. "Pilz India is our 26th subsidiary and as a first step, we have set up a sales office here, in Pune. By next year, we will open technical and sales centres in Chennai and Delhi since both cities are automotive hubs. We will not be manufacturing now since our focus first is sales and education," Mrs Pilz said. Sanjay Kulkarni, managing director, Pilz India, added that the important markets for them are automotive, wind energy, oil and gas and industrial. While railways are an important sector, particularly from the point of safety, entry into that business will take time, Klaus Stark, general manager, international operations, Pilz GmbH, said. Kulkarni said they have begun discussions with engineering colleges in Pune, introducing safety technology in the curriculum but due to industry demand, they will first train employees in customer companies. Stark said they are the only manufacturer with a full service offering although others are catching up fast. The competition is led mainly by European companies, followed by the Japanese and US based companies. Services constitute approximately a third of the company's revenues but this is growing and is hampered by lack of trained manpower, Stark added. "There is also a significant opportunity in retrofitting," Stark noted, pointing to the need for the Indian Railways which has a large number of unmanned crossings.

TVS, GMR joint venture to go pan-India

CHENNAI/HYDERABAD: TVS and GMR, two of South India's most prominent family businesses, have been in a very silent joint venture in the aviation logistics space for more than a year-and-a-half now. Starting with the Hyderabad airport, where the JV is already operational, the plan is to go pan-national. Such a coming together of these two groups has never been discussed in the media until now. The tie-up is between TVS Logistics, whose MD is R Dinesh, and GMR Hyderabad Airport Resource Management. GMR Group head GM Rao's son Kiran Kumar Grandhi is one of the directors of the JV. The TVS company, which has a 51% stake, didn't share details. However, Hemanth DP, COO of the GMR group company, said the idea behind the alliance with TVS Logistics was mainly to tap road feeder services from and to the airport. "TVS is a very established player in the trucking business. We are developing the feeder services as more and more airlines are in need of an extension of their network," he said. "If you come in Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Hyderabad and go in a Jet Airways to Tirupati, technically you book one seat only but it is in two different airlines. Similarly, in the cargo business, we want to establish the road feeder network to connect the last leg. In some cases, it will be by road." The JV is currently operating Aero Express, the bus service that connects the airport to major locations in the city. This is a service that has been scaled up in recent times with more frequency and routes. Vikram R Jaisinghani, the GMR group company's CEO, said, "There is an opportunity for TVS to offer road feeder services and they may be one of the players in the logistics space at the airport." Then there are warehousing services, where GMR believes players like TVS can work with it. Jaisinghani was bullish about his company's plan to develop a cargo hub. The JV has its origins in a company called Radi Logistics, where some TVS members had minor stakes and an associate of Dinesh owned the biggest stake.

Wheels India plans to foray into air-suspension for trucks and trailers

CHENNAI: Leading steel wheels manufacturer Wheels India today said it plans to enter into manufacturing of air-suspension for truck and trailers. "On the suspension side, we have been predominantly looking at bus suspension. We are now increasingly looking to enter into domain of truck suspension and trailer suspension, Wheels India Managing Director Srivats Ram told reporters. The company is also working on ambulance system, he added. He said as far as wheels are concerned there is demand, "but on the suspension products, what we are trying to do is to create a demand in this segment." On their future plans, he said the company proposed to increase the capacity of its five plants to 15 million wheels by next year from the present 13 million wheels at an investment of Rs 70 crore. "Presently, we are producing 12 million wheels (across five plants). We will be adding another million and half capacity over the next year. Right now, we can reach up to 13 million wheels ... next job is to reach 15 million... that may be by next year," Ram said. Of the Rs 70 crore, "bulk" of the investments would go into their two plants in Chennai. On their technical collaboration with Japanese-firm Topy Industries, he said, "By tying up with Topy Industries, we get involved in early product development and design. As a result, there is a possibility for us to become a preferred supplier (to the customers of Topy Industries)," he said. Asked about the company's manufacturing plant at Wardha in Maharashtra, where it is diversifying into power sector, he said the plant would break even by the fourth quarter of 2011. "We have invested around Rs 25 crore. We started last year, it is expected that fourth quarter of this year, we will break even," he said. In the first phase, the company plans to manufacture critical structurals like auto-weld beams, boxes, columns and girders for large boilers made by some of the biggest power plant suppliers, and other applications. On the outlook for this financial year, he said the domestic market has been sluggish in the first quarter and is likely to remain so in the third quarter as well. However, "We expect fourth quarter to be strong," he said.