Swiss engineering company Oerlikon on Saturday said it will set up its third manufacturing facility in India at the automobile hub of Sanand near here, with an investment of Rs 400 crore.
The plant, to be set up by the group’s automotive component-making arm Oerlikon Drive Systems Segment to manufacture transmission synchronisers (gear boxes) and trans axles, among other parts, is scheduled to be commissioned by January 2015.
It is expected to roll out products from March 2015.
“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,” Oerlikon’s Drive Systems Segment CEO Heriberto Diarte told reporters.
“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,” Mr. Diarte said.
According to the company, Rs 400 crore investment at the Sanand facility will be done over a six-year period. The new plant will be spread across 30 acres, and is expected to create almost 1,000 new jobs.
The company is already exporting 40 per cent of its total production from the existing two facilities (Oerlikon Graziano & Oerlikon Fairfield, in Greater Noida and Belgaum, respectively) and aims at 50 per cent exports from India by 2018.
The company, which follows calendar year system of financial reporting, closed with a turnover of Rs 960 crore in 2012, and expects to reach optimum production capacity at its two existing facilities by 2014.
“After this third facility in India, we expect to add up a turnover of another Rs 1,000 crore by 2018, and achieve a 50 per cent export target from all the three facilities in the country,” a company official said.
The Indian operations of Segment Drive Systems is likely to contribute about 20 per cent of its global turnover.
The company supplies components to automotive majors like Volvo Eicher, Mahindra, Tata Hitachi, among others.
Oerlikon is a global player with around 12,700 employees at around 160 locations in 34 countries and sales of CHF (Swiss franc) 2.9 billion in 2012.
