Bharat Forge eyes larger mfg footprint in US

Mumbai, May 23 (PTI) Bharat Forge Ltd, the flagship company of the $2.4 billion Kalyani Group, is looking at increasing its manufacturing footprint in the US market, a top company official said.

"We need to expand our manufacturing footprint in the US market as we have a small plant at Michigan," Bharat Forge's Chairman and Managing Director, Baba N Kalyani, told reporters here.

"We haven't got a right opportunity to expand in the US market, but in the near future we hope to expand our footprint in traditional areas (automotives)," Kalyani said.

The company already has a large footprint in the European market.

"Our focus is to expand our business in Europe, where we have capacities. We may expand in automotive-related activities in Europe," he said.
       
Commenting on its China operations, Kalyani said the company has a large footprint and the Chinese plant was scaling-up.
       
The company, however, had no plans to set up manufacturing units in Brazil and Russian markets, where it had entered last year, he said.
       
Asked on capex plans, Kalyani said that the company has small capital expenditure plans this year and was looking at investing more in the non-automotive sector.
       
The company sees a huge potential in the power sector estimated at Rs 2,000 crore and plans to scale up its capacity of turbine generators.

The company's joint ventures with Alstom, Areva and NTPC are on track, Kalyani said.
       
The company has entered into two joint ventures with French power company, Alstom, to manufacture power plants equipment--basically turbines and generators and associated auxiliaries for super critical power plants at Mundra SEZ of Mundra Port in Gujarat.
       
"We are getting into the joint venture which should start production by 2013. Bharat Forge will of course supply a lot of components that go into this and the joint venture will manufacture the actual capital goods," Bharat Forge's Executive Director, Amit Kalyani, said.
       
The joint venture with NTPC-BF-NTPC Energy Systems Limited (BFNESL) has began construction at Solapur in Maharashtra. The plant proposes to manufacture products to support thermal, hydro and nuclear power sectors besides oil and gas, petrochemicals, steel and mining industries.
       
Bharat Forge will have a majority stake in the joint venture with Areva, which will focus on supply of ultra-heavy forgings for nuclear and thermal power plants.
       
The company expects 40 per cent of total revenue from the non-automotive sector by 2012 from the present 30 per cent, Kalyani said.
       
The company is financially well-structured and performing well. "If we ramp up the capacity utilisation, the profitability will further improve," he said.