As part of its capacity expansion programme, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd. (SCL) has set up a new foundry at Oragadam, near here.
The plant has come up with an an investment of more than ₹150 crore. It will have a capacity of 8,000 tonnes, and produce machined castings ranging from 1.9 kg to 7.2 kg. The new facility was formally inaugurated by Young Key Koo, managing director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India Limited, on Thursday.
The plant, will serve key customers of the company and primarily Hyundai Motor India, the second biggest car-maker in the country.
“This facility reinforces our drive to serve our customers by cutting down supply times because of the proximity to their factories and gives us a competitive edge. This is a critical advantage given the lean inventory management of our customers who want the supply chain to be agile,” said Lakshmi Venu, joint managing director, of SCL.
With this major capacity expansion, the company is comfortably positioned to meet the rapidly growing demand for its products from the automotive industry.
To a question, she said that the plant was funded by a combination of internal accruals and debt. Ms. Venu indicated that the plant would scale up to full capacity by the third quarter of 2019-20.
SCL is positive on the Indian automotive market . It feels the market will continue to see robust growth.
“Vehicles with fuel efficiency are critical to Indian market,” she said. “Our technology aims to provide high strength parts with light weight to our customers . It will help them to produce vehicles with lesser weight and more fuel efficiency for the end-customer.”
Reducing supply time
SCL produces more than 50,000 tonnes of castings annually for the passenger car, commercial vehicle and two-wheeler segments. It services the needs of key customers such as Hyundai, Volvo, Daimler and Honda.
For another, it expects the aluminium component to play a key role in helping the original equipment manufacturers satisfy the expectation of their clients in the wake of increasing thrust on fuel efficiency.
The capacity expansion, SCL said, is a part of its strategy to partner in the light-weighting of their customers’ vehicles, both with R&D capability and a responsive supply chain.
SCL currently has facilities at Padi, Oragadam and Mahindra World City, near here. It also has a plant at Hosur. It reported a turnover of more than ₹1,767 crore in 2017-18.
