Canadian auto-component player Magna starts two plants at Sanand

To supply seats, body and chassis parts to Ford; plans to cater to other auto OEMs in area

Leading global automotive components maker Magna International Inc today inaugurated its Sanand manufacturing facilities catering to the Ford India facility in the vicinity, and said that they are looking at supporting the other automotive OEMs (original equipment makers) in the area as well. 

At one plant Magna would be making the complete seat systems for Ford, while at the other it would be manufacturing body and chassis systems for Ford.

While the company did not wish to divulge the exact investment made on the Sanand facility, it said that it was a multi-million dollar project and that there was room for expansion.

"We are looking at supporting the other automotive OEMs in the vicinity including Tata Motors, and the upcoming projects of Maruti Suzuki and Honda Cars," said Deval M. Desai, vice president and country head, India executive director,business development, Magna International Inc.

Both the units together would provide employment to about 600 people. As for the seating systems plant, it would have an initial capacity to make car seats for 240,000 cars per year that can be expanded to 500,000 car seats per year on a two-shift basis.

Magna is a global strategic supplier of Ford and the Sanand plants would also be exporting to locations in South America and other locations as per requirement. No export target has been set as of now.

Cosma International, a wholly owned operating unit of Magna International, would be making the body and chassis systems at Sanand, and would employ around 400 people. The highly automated plant has 80 robots that are used for welding as well as materials handling and other manufacturing processes.

Magna has around 12 manufacturing locations across India, and 285 manufacturing locations across the globe. Nearly 116 plants across the globe supply to Ford, informed James J. Tobin, chief marketing officer & president Magna Asia. "We are looking at the next phase of growth to come from India. Indian market is estimated to grow from a 4 million units at present to about 12 million units by 2030," he added.

Sanand has seen an influx of automotive suppliers ever since Tata Motors parked its plant here around 2008. Apart from Ford and Tata, Honda and Maruti are setting up plants nearby.

The 125-km Sanand-Hansalpur-Vithalapur belt, with the connected nodes of Kadi and Halol, is evolving as a major automobile hub in the the Asia-Pacific region. An investment of about Rs 15,000 crore in all had already been committed by various companies, to create annual capacity of 1.25 million four-wheel and two million two-wheeled ones.

Another Rs 10,000-crore investment is awaited from Maruti Suzuki India and Honda Cars India, taking the installed capacity to 2.2 million vehicles annually in the next six to eight years.

Earlier this year, Delhi-based JBM Auto commissioned its components manufacturing unit at Sanand around June. In all around 19 vendors of Ford have set up facilities around Sanand including big names like Getrag Transmission India, Motherson Systems, Visteon Automotive, Valeo India and Caparo Engineering India.