The Hindu Business Line : Sundram Fasteners looks to enter non-auto biz

Entry into non-auto business will help insulate the company from the cyclical trends in the automotive industry. — Mr Suresh Krishna, Chairman and Managing Director

Our Bureau

Chennai, Aug. 20 Sundram Fasteners Ltd will soon enter the non-automobile segment even while laying thrust on expanding its product portfolio in the auto component business. SFL has been shortlisted by a few players in the aerospace industry, including Airbus Industrie and GE for supplying fasteners.

Speaking to the media at the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting, Mr Suresh Krishna, Chairman and Managing Director, Sundram Fasteners, said due to the recession in the US and Europe, the validation process was getting delayed.

“Aircraft fastener is a tricky item as it has to undergo tremendous amount of quality checks. We may eventually put up a separate factory for this,” he said.

The company currently makes powder metallurgy parts, cold extruded components, shafts, water pumps and oil pumps for the automotive industry. Last year, nearly half its revenues of Rs 1,262 crore came from fasteners.

“We would like to leverage the brand recall of Sundram Fasteners, which has evolved into an industrial products manufacturing company,” from being only a fasteners manufacturer. Entry into non-auto business would help insulate the company from the cyclical trends in the automotive industry, Mr Krishna said.

Partnership with Hitachi

SFL would also set up a new plant in Hosur with an investment of Rs 50 crore to make seamless tappets for Maruti Suzuki for the new generation engines.

The vehicle manufacturer is on a project to upgrade all the engines and using seamless tappets is part of the project. Therefore it decided to localise it. Under technical partnership with Hitachi, SFL will make the component, eventually to become the single source for Maruti. Production is expected to begin in November.

Besides, the company is planning to make turbine shafts for automotive engine applications.

It will invest Rs 40 crore in setting up a dedicated assembly line at its facility in the Mahindra World city, about 45 km from Chennai.

The company discontinued operations of its subsidiary — Sundram RBI SDN BHD in Malaysia. This was due to winding up of operations by its sole customer, Proton.

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