Eaton to churn out gears from Pune facility

Automotive and electrical engineering major Eaton Corporation will manufacture gears, gear shafts and gear boxes for heavy duty trucks at Ranjangaon, near Pune.

The products, currently meant for truck manufacturers in the US or Europe, may soon find customers in India as well, Shriram Parameshwaran, country manager for Eaton's Indian subsidiary Eaton Technologies d told media persons on Wednesday.

Parameshwaran said the products would be for the large trucks in the class 7 and class 8 categories and will be exported to markets in US and Europe. "The market for these products is currently very small in India but with the commissioning of the Golden Quadrilateral project and introduction of heavy duty trucks by global majors like Volvo, there are big chances for the company to market them in India as well," he said.

The company has acquired land from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation at the Ranjangaon industrial estate and the manufacturing facility would be operational by early 2008. He did not disclose the investment proposed or the capacities expected to be installed. Parameshwaran said a separate company for the activity will be formed by Eaton Corporation as its wholly owned foreign company.

He explained that the company will make only the critical manufacturing and final assemblies at Ranjangaon as it has developed a strong vendor network across India to source other components. He also hinted at some more of Eaton's products moving to India as the $ 11billion Cleaveland, Ohio-based corporation may close down some of its global locations.

Eaton entered India in the year 1999 when it acquired globally Aeroquip Vickers which had two units in India (Mumbai and Pune) named Vickers Systems International Limited. VSIL manufactures a wide range of hydraulic components and systems.

Parameshwaran said the company has established an design development centre which works on design projects for Eaton's global product developent programmes. The company has also set up a shared financial services centre and an information technology centre in Pune though both these work exclusively cater to Eaton Corp's internal requirements.

Parameshwaran said Eaton has tageted to become a $ 18 billion company by the year 2010. "The contribution from the Asia Pacific region in this level of operations would be $ 2.8 billion, a major portion of which will come from India," he added.