Tata-Marcopolo bus to roll out in a month

Tata-Marcopolo bus to roll out in a month

Published on Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 08:40

The first product from the Tata Marcopolo Motors Ltd (TMML) bus plant at Dharwad will roll out in a month’s time.

“The trial production has already started. Final tests are going on. In less than a month’s time the first product will roll out,” Mr Prakash M. Telang, Tata Motors Executive Director – Commercial Vehicles, told Business Line. The first set of products will be buses in the light commercial vehicle segment.

The Dharwad plant, set up with an investment of Rs 325 crore, has an annual capacity of 30,000 vehicles. The plant is expected to produce about 2,000 buses in the current financial year.

“The plant is much larger than what we had planned earlier. It would be one of the largest plants of its kind in the world. We did this expansion because we believe the market is going to grow in India. Not only in India and but also in the entire Third World,” said Mr Telang.

Tata Marcopolo Motors is a joint venture between Tata Motors and Marcopolo, the Brazil-based company that is into body-building for buses and coaches, with Tata Motors holding 51 per cent stake and Marcopolo the balance.

Export from Dharwad

The company is looking for export from Dharwad facility because of its proximity to the port. “We are looking for two sets of export models. One is fully-built buses with chassis from Tatas and bus body building from Marcopolo. And in certain countries like South Africa, Morocco and Egypt we do CKD (completely knocked down units) operations. We will send CKD kits from here,” said Mr Telang.

DTC orders

The Tata Motors - Marcopolo joint venture to manufacture and assemble fully-built buses and coaches has delivered 650 CNG-run buses to Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) from its Lucknow facility and has bagged an order for another 1,625 buses from the DTC. “We will deliver this order in 12-15 months time,” said Mr Ravi Pisharody, Vice-President, Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors.

The company is providing low-floor low entry buses for city transport in Delhi and expects orders from other cities, including Mumbai and Bangalore. “The low-floor low entry buses have become almost the norm in the intra-city transport. India is just getting ready for that,” said Mr Pisharody.

Body building

He said that Tata Motors put emphasis on bus body building. “The current practice in India is that market will buy chassis from big companies and do body building with third parties. Globally this is not very prevalent. All large companies supply high quality bodies. Basically, in our case, that is being done through Marcopolo,” said Mr Pisharody.

He said that the company-specified bus body building will improve the travel comfort and it is being well-received by the transporters. “Delhi Transport Corporation is the first to buy body-built buses and many more are coming up,” he said.

Tata Motors, the largest Indian bus makers and the second largest in the world after Mercedes-Benz, currently holds 50 per cent of the domestic market share.

Precision moves for engineers

Precision moves for engineers

Oct 14 2008 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A PRECISION engineering company is expanding into markets worldwide – with the opening of new factories in the USA and India.

VTL Group, which supplies components for the automotive and Industrial sectors has two sites in St Thomas Road, Huddersfield and one site at Luddenden Foot in Halifax, has just commissioned a new production facility in Charleston, South Carolina, to serve its American customers.

The 20,000sq ft US facility, part of VTL’s Precision business, began operations last November and was officially opened last month by the Mayor of Charleston. It now employs about 35 staff which will increase to 70 by the end of 2009.

VTL is also in the early stages of developing another factory at Dharwad, Karnataka, southern India, to manufacture items such as automotive transmission components and precision machined industrial components for clients in the Far East and in Europe.

To this end VTL acquired a five-acre site in, where it is currently building a 35,000sq ft factory to begin operations in July, 2009, as Uni-VTL Engineering PVT Ltd. The site will have enough space for a further 35,000sq ft production unit to be added when needed.

VTL Group was formed in November, 2001, by joint owners David Clegg, Chris Elliott and Bruno Jouan when they completed a management buy-out of French-owned Valeo Transmissions Ltd in Halifax.

The business expanded with the 2006 acquisition of precision engineering firm Taylor & Whiteley Ltd – which now provides the TWL name.

TWL Precision makes components used in the manufacture of turbochargers, while TWL Engineering makes large precision shafts, forge tooling, jigs, fixtures and compressor housings.

Customers include Cummins Inc – the US-based parent of Cummins Turbo Technologies – Flowserve, Weir Minerals, Kodak and Wabco.

In total, VTL Group has 270 employees, including 140 at St Thomas Road where it occupies a factory built on part of the former Brook Motors complex. It has a further 95 employee’s in Halifax and 35 in the USA.

Since 2001, it has invested more than £12m in the latest technology to manufacture components for turbochargers for trucks applications and synchronizer rings for manual transmissions.

That investment has helped boost turnover from £8m to almost £39m in the space of seven years.

Mr. Clegg said the group had achieved success by carving a niche market in the UK and being able to compete with the three or four “big players” in Europe.

“We have used a recipe of continual improvement and investment in the right type and standard of machines,” he said.

“We have kept to the forefront of technology and we have focused on meeting tough targets from customers to supply defect-free products with 100% on-time delivery every week.”

Mr. Jouan said: “Having facilities across the world enables us to attract international customers who welcome having a supplier on their doorstep.”