I N D I A ’ S N O . 1 M A G A Z I N E F O R A U T O M O T I V E N E W S , V I E W S & A N A LY S I S
Auto Monitor ekly e W
NEWS IN BRIEF New 3 Series makes India debut Our Bureau Mumbai
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MW launched the new sixth generation 3 Series sedan in Mumbai recently. The new BMW 3 Series will be manufactured from CKD kits at the company’s Chennai plant and the deliveries have started at BMW dealerships across India from July. The new 3 Series is available in two design schemes—sport line and luxury line. It is available in diesel (BMW 320d) and petrol variants (BMW 328i) with base (ex showroom) price of `28.9 lakh to `37.9 for top sport line model (328i). The sedan offers 14 mm of additional knee room and 8 mm of extra headroom further enhance the passenger’s comfort. The volume of the luggage compartment has been increased by 20 litre to a total of 480 litre. The BMW iDrive has a 6.5inch display while the Navigation Professional features a colour display that projects data directly into the driver’s field of vision without diverting the driver’s attention.
Vol. 12 No. 23
30 July 2012
w w w.am o n l i n e.i n
STUDY
24 Pages
` 50
INTERVIEW
Tractor Segment Growth Low Speed Yet Strong Traction: CARE Study
“MERCEDES IS A GERMAN BRAND BUT WE WANT TO SATISFY THE SPECIFIC NEEDS AND DEMANDS OF OUR CUSTOMERS IN INDIA”
Pg 10
Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars
Pg 8
MESL to set up plant in Bangalore Nabeel A Khan & Jagdev Kalsi New Delhi
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urgaon-based Mark Exhaust Systems Ltd (MESL) has invested around `100 crore towards setting up a new plant in Bangalore. The plant, expected to be functional by January 2013 will manufacture exhaust systems, suspensions, door handles and other components for Honda Motorcycles. In the period of April-June, the two-wheeler sales in India grew by 10.51 percent at 3,519,529 units compared to
3,184,774 units in the like period previous fiscal. “Initially, we will be supplying to Honda Motorcycle and we are also looking at tapping the opportunity from the four-wheeler manufacturers to supply sheet metal component and exhaust systems,” systems, Chairman and MD, Ma rk E x haust, Rattan Kapur told Auto Monitorr in an interview. The production at the new plant w ill commence early
next year keeping in mind that Honda has decided to expand its capacity from 1.2 to two million units. The component manufacturer envisions that if it is successful in the first phase then it will get a good chance to bid for the second phase of expansion where the two-wh two-wheeler major will be coming up. The constru construction of the first phase will b be across about 200,000 sq ft of the th estimated 10 acre facility. It w will have an initial capacity of on one million units of each part, every year. The company will roll out a total of about 14 components from f this plant adding up to a cap capacity of around 14 million units per p annum. The current slu sluggish environment has not sp spared MESL as its growth remai remained almost stable and the com company holds the increasing mate material costs and lack of policy fro from the government for the pl plaguing market conditions. MES MESL managed to attain a turnove turnover or `650 crore in FY12. “Clarity in policies and stability of the government
should see a growth of seveneight percent. But today, our GDP is down to three-four percent. Similar figures can be excellent for Europe, but not for India,” Kapur pointed out. As the bottom line is shrinking because of issues like high cost of labour and inputs, component makers have adopted low-cost automation to be cost competitive and to increase profitability. “It is very important to go for automation. Its not that it decreases employment, but the quality of product becomes higher, repeatability becomes better, rejection levels become low because a human hand can accept certain faulty parts, but not a robot. So the quality of parts becomes top class,” added Kapur. Of the `100 crore investments, the investment in land is around `15 crore with balance on construction and machineries. Maruti being, one of the major customers of MESL will be looking at setting up a plant in Gujarat. Rattan Kapur had recently visited the state along with a delegation from ACMA to explore the availability of land.
Maruti suppliers adopt cautious outlook Our Bureau Mumbai
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DATA MONITOR Top 5 CV Makers Company
Jun-11
Jun-12
TML
35,081
35,719
Change 1.82%
M&M
9,750
10,447
7.15%
ALL
6,824
9,146
34.03%
VECV Eicher
3,616
3,767
4.18%
FML
2,164
2,189
1.16%
Top 5 CV Exporters Company
Jun-11
Jun-12
Change
TML
2,994
5,304
77.15%
M&M
1,178
1,867
58.49%
ALL
1,185
1,098
-7.34%
VECV Eicher
107
297
177.57%
SML Isuzu
97
30
-69.07%
* Source: SIAM/ ** Excluding exports/ *** all sub segments considered/ ^ excluding MRPL
ven as Manesar continues to grapple with the aftermath of the Maruti strife with workers in the adjoining OEM and component units expressing solidarity with their Maruti counterparts, suppliers are baffled with the turn of events. Though most are unwilling to comment on the state of affairs, Maruti vendors are hopeful of an earlier resolution of the impasse. “The scenario is grim and we are uncertain regarding production schedule etc but it is a temporary phase. We are hopeful of the production to resume and attain normalcy,” said a Punebased supplier.
Corrective Measures Following the death of Awanish Kumar Dev in the company premises, the company, in its statement, said that its most
important concern at this time is the safety and security of its supervisory and management personnel. The company officials in a press conference to declare a lockout, also pointed out that unless the causes are identified and appropriate corrective action is in place, it would be unsafe for supervisors and managers to resume work at the Manesar facility.
Depleting Inventories The company officials refused to divulge details on any assessment of loss to property and assets. The bigger concern for suppliers and customers is depleting inventory of models like Swift and Dzire and the company’s plans for meeting market demand for these models. The company dealers have been advised to go slow on the bookings until production gets back to ‘normal’ schedule. The company management has categorically refused to identify Manesar episode as an
RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki
“industrial relations” problem in the nature of managementworker differences over issues of wages or working conditions. The company has termed it as an orchestrated act of mob violence at a time when operations had been normal over the past many months. It has further
pointed out that such acts of violence—pre-planned, unprovoked and gruesome—have implications beyond one company or region. They are a negative trigger for existing companies and regions across the country, as also for prospective investors and job seekers.