The Hindu Business Line : Rane (Madras) sets up unit near Kanchipuram

New plans
Two companies of the group are putting up production facilities at Uttaranchal at a cost of Rs 9 crore.
Rane group expects its sales to increase to Rs 1,500 crore.

Chennai , Oct. 23

The Chennai-based Rane group, manufacturers of auto components, has a bunch of new plants coming up in different parts of the country. One of them has been built and is to be formally inaugurated on Tuesday. Two units are coming up at Uttaranchal and two more at Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu.

The plant that is to be inaugurated on Tuesday is located at Varanavasi village near Kanchipuram, about 40 km from Chennai. This plant, put up by Rane (Madras) Ltd, will produce ball joints and export them to TRW, a US-based auto components major.

Plant and machinery worth about Rs 10 crore have been shifted to Varanavasi from an existing plant of Rane (Madras). But the company intends to invest Rs 14 crore more in the plant over the coming few years. At present, the plant can produce 5.65 million ball joints, eventually its capacity would be raised to 10 million pieces, Mr L. Ganesh, Vice-Chairman of Rane group, told a press conference here.

Two companies of the group — Rane (Madras) and Rane NSK — are putting up production facilities at Uttaranchal at a cost of Rs 9 crore. The units are slated to begin production in April 2007.

Mr Ganesh said that the Rane Brake Linings and Rane Engine Valves had plans to build new plants at Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu. He, however, added that these plans were at a preliminary stage.

`No threat'

The Rane group expects its sales to increase to Rs 1,500 crore from Rs 1,350 crore in 2005-06. Exports were about Rs 110 crore. The group is working towards raising exports to a level of 25 per cent of sales.

Answering a question, Mr Ganesh said that the group did not face any threat from Thailand. (It was earlier feared that Rane Engine Valves might suffer business loss because of the Free Trade Agreement with Thailand, which included engine components in the first list of items of trade.) Mr Ganesh, however, said that China was dumping products such as steering columns and valves.

He said that the group had studied the option of setting up a plant in China, but had decided against it as there was no significant cost advantage in producing from there.

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