New Car Wheel rim manufacturing plant inaugurated in Pune

Kalyani Group and Hayes Lemmerz International joint venture, Kalyani Hayes Lemmerz Ltd introduced a new greenfield unit at Chakan near Pune, Maharashtra. The plant will manufacture steel wheel rims for the passenger cars.

The new manufacturing unit has been built with an investment of Rs 70 crore ($ 15.31 million) and with a capacity to manufacture 20 lac wheel rims in one year. The unit capacity can be increased to almost 40 lacs wheel rim annually which is expected to happen soon in near future that will include an additional investment of almost Rs 55 to Rs 60 crore ($12 to $13 million). The company joint venture with the US partners accounts to 85 per cent.

The plant also includes a paint shop which can manufacture almost 40 lac wheel rims. The company makes wheel rims for the major car brands in India. Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Fiat, Volkswagen, Ford India and Renault have placed its order for 17 lacs wheel rims.

Baba Kalyani, the chairman of Kalyani Group said that the passenger car segment will witness a great demand. The demand is acting like magnet to the overseas OEMs to set up their manufacturing units in India. As per him, the passenger car market will have a 3 fold hike in the coming ten years time.

Curtis J Clawson, the President and CEO of Hayes Lemmerz International, US expressing his views said that the growing Indian market is playing a major role in attracting the global auto motive sector to invest. Clawson also said that, currently aluminium wheels comes in high end version of passenger vehicles accounting to four per cent. As per him, in future, the market for aluminum wheel rims is expected to raise to 10 per cent in the coming three years time.

Fred Bentley, COO and the President of Global Wheel Group, Hayes Lemmerz Int. Inc. said that the company has invested in the Indian auto sector as it wishes to capture the opportunity the growing Indian auto market presents. Revealing the future plans, he commented that the company may think about producing the aluminium wheel rims also for the market.

Kalyani Hayes Lemmerz Ltd, together started the first manufacturing unit in 1996 in Pune which produces wheel rims for the commercial vehicles. The unit can manufacture almost 10 lacs wheel rims and it supplies to the auto makers such as Mercedes, Tata, Volvo, Swaraj, Mahindra Navistar and Jabalpur-Vehicle Factory. Kalyani Hayes Lemmerz Ltd also manufactures wheel rims for overseas markets like Volvo Sweden, Dailmer of Germany and Iveco of Italy. The company is also expected to increase the manufacturing capacity to almost 12 lacs wheel rims annually.