15 % Growth In Auto-Component Industry

Indian auto components industry is all set to notch up a 15 per cent growth during the current fiscal year, despite the general slowdown in the automobile sector.

The estimated export figure during 1997-98 will be over Rs 1,250 crore as against Rs 1,100 crore during the last financial year, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India said. The total production of the auto-components stood at Rs 11,474 crore in 1996-97.

At present, almost 11 per cent of the total production is being exported to over 100 countries.

Aided by the devaluation of rupee, the production figure is likely to touch Rs 21,500 crore by the turn of the century, according to ACMA PTI

If the foreign markets continue to respond the way it does now, the export earning of the industry will be around Rs 1,800 crore by the year 2000, ACMA executive director Vishnu Mathur said.

Asked why Indian auto-components attract foreign buyers when our vehicles fail to do so, Mathur said, The main reason is that for the components only the quality matters. But for the vehicles, there are a host of factors like better finishing, outlook and the taste of the foreign buyers, all of which generally go against us.

Europe is the biggest market for Indian auto-components with a share of 28 per cent of total exports. However, the United States is the largest individual buyer followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

The good response from overseas markets for Indian auto-components was reflected in the recently concluded Las Vegas auto-components show, where the six Indian companies that participated fetched orders worth $25 million.

Among the auto-components, engine parts like valves and fuel injection equipment are the major items being exported followed by drive transmission and steering parts.

Engine parts constituted 35 per cent of the total production in the last year, while transmission and steering parts accounted for 21 per cent.

The growth in the auto-components industry can be gauged by another yardstick - the number of foreign collaborations in the components industry today stand at over 320 up from a few dozens a decade back.