Tata Timken Lining Up Rs 5-Crore Expansion

The company's capacity would be raised from the present 2 million bearings to 3 million to keep pace with the growth of the Indian automotive industry.

The execution of the project would start during the current financial year and is likely to be completed in 1997-98. The expansion project would be financed through loans and internal accruals, director of marketing S W J Hamilton said.

This, he said, would reinforce Tata Timken's presence as the leading tapered roller bearing supplier in India.

The company has an accumulated loss of over Rs 43 crore, and posted a net profit for the first time during 1995-96. It hopes to wipe out the entire accumulated loss by the end of the decade.

 

Tata Timken, which has a market share of about 17 per cent in the tapered roller bearings segment, had recorded a growth of 40 per cent during the first half of the current financial year compared to the corresponding period last year. Hamilton said that its bearings would be cost competitive once the company starts production at Jamshedpur.

Telco is currently the single largest customer of its bearings, Hamilton added that the company now supplied 32 per cent of the bearings to the Indian railways.

Hamilton said the company would like to sell its bearings in the global market but given the current demand in India, the company's export plans have taken a backseat.

He further said that in future the company might import small bearings from the Timken plants worldwide to cater to the need of the Indian automotive industry.

Expressing concern over the spurious bearings, Hamilton said that the company suffered due to duplication.