Bharat Forge to set up Rs 350 cr greenfield unit

The world's second largest forging manufacturer Bharat Forge has announced it will enter the non-automotive forgings business and set up a greenfield facility at Baramati near Pune, Maharashtra.

The 30,000 tonne-a-year facility, to be built with a capital outlay of Rs 350 crore, is expected to commence production in April 2008. About 60 per cent of the production at the facility will be for export purposes, Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director said. The facility would be called Bharat Forge Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and will employ 1200 engineers and technical personnel in the initial stage.

Kalyani said the decision to enter the non-automotive forgings business was part of a strategy to derisk the company's business and the additional capacities created will take the company closer to being the world's largest forgings manufacturer. The plant will house the world's largest closed die casting facility, which will have a forging hammer of 80 tonnes and will handle large crankshafts of 4.5 meters in length and two tonnes in weight. Kalyani said the plant will manufacture 100,000 large crankshafts.