Rane Brake Lining Limited (RBL), the market leader in frictional materials and part of the Rs 1,400-crore Rane group, has opened a new manufacturing facility at Trichy in Tamil Nadu, the fourth plant of the company, on Friday. The plant will primarily cater to Maruti Suzuki with other OEMs such as Tatas, Toyota , Honda, Nissan among others, said L Ganesh, chairman, Rane group. The plant was inaugurated by S Maitra, executive director & managing executive officer (Supply Chain), Maruti Suzuki India Limited.
Set up with an investment of Rs 60 crore, the plant will have an initial capacity of two million capacity of disc pads, which will be scaled up to 10 million pieces by 2012-13. The plant has been set up in technical collaboration with Japan-based Nisshinbo, who is a long-tern technology partner and a minority stakeholder in Rane Brake Lining, Ganesh said.
This is the fourth plant after Chennai, Puducherry and Hyderabad . Following the Trichy plant, the total capacity of the disc pads is expected to touch 20 million units per annum by 2012-13, he added.
Addressing a press conference at the plant site on Friday, he said 60% of the capacity is expected to be sourced by Maruti over a period of time and the remaining will be supplied to other OEMs in India . ?We believe this is the first of its kind plant to have a transparent and most advanced technology process in India and will lead to a greater cooperation between our partner and OEMs in the years to come,? he said. When the plant goes on full stream, the revenue from this plant will be around Rs 90 crore, he added.
According to him, given the changing expectations, new trends, increasing competitiveness among components manufacturers and the proposed entry of new car makers in India, it is essential for us to go for a such highly technologically advanced plant at this place. ?We see the passenger car segment in India will witness a CAGR of 15% for next 10 years,? Ganesan said.
Based on the demand from overseas OEMs, the company will start exporting from this plant also. ?The company?s exports will touch 15% in the next few years as compared to 8% now,? said P S Rao, president, RBL.
Later addressing the gathering, S Maitra, ED (Supply Chain), Maruti Suzuki, said: ?This is the finest facilities ever set up by any company in India . We are passing through a wonderful pace of growth of the passenger car industry, which expects to grow 12% CAGR.?
?Today we are in a quality competitive situation in India . Customers in India start looking at products with quality that of Japan or other countries and this facility is definitely a step towards that direction and Maruti hopes its decades-old relationship with Rane group will get further strengthened through this facility,? Maitra said.
Other like S Viji, Managing Director, Brakes India Limited, the largest sources of disc pads from Rane group, Nissinhbo director and Rane Holdings Chairman L Lakshman also spoke on the occasion.