SCL plans Rs 40-cr greenfield facility

Sundaram Clayton Limited (SCL), part of the TVS group and the holding company of TVS Motor, is planning to invest around Rs 100 crore in several projects including a greenfield facility at Oragadam with an outlay of Rs 40 crore. The investment would be spread over for the next two years, said Venu Srinivasan, chairman, SCL.

The new facility would manufacture heavy truck parts and other automotive components including pipes, brackets and aluminum die-casting. The company order book this year included new customers such as Daimler (India and EU) and Nokia Siemens as well as from existing customers like Cummins, Volvo, TVS Motor, WABCO-TVS, Hyundai, Honda and Ford.

“These orders are expected to carry a cumulative potential of Rs 375 crore in the next five years,” Srinivasan said.

To cater to the demand, the company’s planned facility at Oragadam would manufacture heavy truck parts and other automotive components including pipes, brackets and aluminum die-casting.

Srinivasan said the company had set a business target of Rs 725 crore for the current fiscal and Rs 1,000 crore turnover in the next two years. The company’s sales remained stagnant at Rs 492.67 crore in 2009-10 as against Rs 492.36 crore a year ago.

On the exports front, Srinivasan said the demand for commercial vehicles in US and Europe continued to be depressed. North American class-8 trucks market shrunk 42 per cent, while that of class 5-7 trucks dropped by 38 per cent. European medium and heavy trucks also reported 60 per cent drop. “This had resulted the company reporting a 12 per cent drop in the fiscal to Rs 172.72 crore,” he said.

For the current fiscal, the company has set an export target of Rs 200 crore. Srinivasan said, “Key export markets of the company — the US and Europe — are expected to grow moderately during 2010.”