As part of its continued plan to expand its global engineering and manufacturing footprint, the Canadian auto components major Magna International Inc. has announced the establishment of two new facilities in the Sanand in Gujarat. While the new plants reflect business awards for vehicle programs built off global-platforms, they also help position Magna for further growth in India as vehicle production expands.
Deval Desai,
In addition to this announcement, the company has separately entered in to a 50:50 joint venture with Tata AutoComp Systems to develop seats for commercial vehicles in India. Headquartered in Pune, the JV will deliver innovative seating systems to commercial vehicle manufacturers as well as buses.
All these initiatives are expected to rise Magna’s India sales by 6 folds to over $300 million in 2016 from about $50 million in 2013, said Deval Desai, Executive Director (Strategy & Planning) and Country Manager – India, Magna International, at a media briefing at its headquarters in Troy, Michigan. “and a new vehicle with this frame will be launched in India in a couple of weeks,” he said.
Swamy Kotagiri
“We have launched our first Asia frame a month ago and we will be supplying it to Mahindra for their new utility vehicle platform ,” said, Swamy Kotagiri, Chief Technology Officer, Magna International. According to him this innovative ladder frame will give better stability to the vehicle. It may be noted that Magna has so for produced over 25 million frames to customers across the globe.
New Plants
At one of the new Sanand facilities, Magna will make complete seat systems for a leading automaker. Few OEMs including Ford India and Maruti are setting up plants in Gujarat. The 215,000-square-foot plant will employ approximately 200 people and is expected to begin volume production in 2015.
The second new facility is expected make body and chassis systems for multiple customers. The 356,000-square-foot plant will employ approximately 400 people and also expects to begin volume production in 2015.
The global company already has significant presence in India; it has a 279,000-square-foot body and chassis plant in Pune which performs blanking, stamping, forming, as well as welding and assembly on programs for customers such as General Motors, Volkswagen, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. Besides, it has a seating design and engineering centre in Pune.
The company’s plant in Chennai with 225,000-square-foot space makes body and chassis parts in the form of stamping, welding and assembly for customers such as Ford and Nissan in India, as well as customers outside India. In Bangalore the company has a vacuum pump manufacturing facility serving customers such as Maruti Suzuki, Honda Cars India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Renault-Nissan and Tata Motors. In addition, the company is able to provide its customers in India broad product and process expertise on a local basis, as well as global program coordination through a body and chassis engineering centre in Bngalore, seating and full-vehicle engineering centres inPune, and a latch and closure engineering centre in Chennai. The company has about 1,600 employees now in 9 facilities. With the two new Sanand facilities, Magna will have 11 manufacturing locations and four engineering centres.
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