Oerlikon to invest Rs.400 crore in new plant
Oerlikon will invest Rs.400 crore towards establishing a new manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat. Once complete, this will be the Switzerland-based engineering company's third plant in India. The commissioning of the plant is scheduled to happen by January 2015 and production will start from March onwards.
The plant will be established and run by Oerlikon Drive Systems Segment which is the parent group's automotive components manufacturing division. The investment towards the new plant is scheduled to continue for a six year period. Once completely operational, the plant is likely to create around 1,000 new job openings and cover an area of 30 acres. The Indian division is expected to bring in 20 percent of the Drive Systems Segment's global turnover.
Oerlikon is aiming its Indian operations to contribute 50 percent of exports by 2018. The company currently exports 40 percent of it total production from its plants in Greater Noida (Oerlikon Graziano) and Belgaum (Oerlikon Fairfield). It supplies automobile components to Volvo, Eicher, Mahindra and Tata.
"This marks an important milestone for development of Drive Systems in India. With this new capacity we will not only continue our growth in India but upgrade our capabilities to more high-tech driven products," said Heriberto Diarte, CEO, Oerlikon's Drive Systems Segment.
"We have been growing at around 20-22 per cent for the last two years in India. And so committed to the Indian market, that our headquarters in Switzerland has been shifted to New Delhi in India," added Diarte.
