Newstrack

Bharat Forge to set up aircraft parts plant

Baramati unit: BFL hopes to board Boeing, Airbus vendors' list

EAW Staff - Pune

Hitherto known as the auto-component hub of India, Pune has upped the ante and staked claim as the new backroom for aerospace engineering. The city-based Bharat Forge (BFL), already a global player in the auto-components sector, is setting up a Rs 350 crore Centre for Advanced Manufacturing at Baramati in Pune district.

The plant will have forging capacity of 30,000 tonnes a year, manufacture 1 lakh machined crankshafts and engage 1,200 workers. With global aviation majors Boeing and Airbus looking to source components from India, Bharat Forge is all ready to board their vendor list. The plant, scheduled to start commercial production in April 2008, is targeting a turnover of Rs 350 crore in the first 18 months.

Said BFL chairman Baba Kalyani, "This is how China built its own civil aviation industry - by using the offset programme and technology flows that came with it over 15 to 20 years". Bharat Forge will start with structured parts and landing gear while aerospace engine parts will come next.

The Baramati plant will have one of the world's largest closed die manufacturing capacities with an 80-tonne hammer, which can produce pieces that weigh 2.5 tonnes each and are 4.5 metres long. "The best we make currently is 350 kg. So the new plant will make eight times bigger products," Kalyani said.

Apart from aerospace, the new plant will also make forged parts for the marine, locomotive and the power sectors. Kalyani said that the entry into the non-automotive space is also a way of de-risking the company's business from the downturns in the automotive market.

This is a lucrative niche segment as it has limited suppliers. "There are no Indian manufacturers in this space while globally there are four or five players," Kalyani pointed out, adding that his company has an edge, being cost-competitive. Like it did in automotives, the company is looking at acquisitions to take this business global and emerge as a big player in this business in the next five years.

Until the domestic market picks up, Kalyani expects 80 per cent of the business to accrue through exports to North America and Europe. BFL is also close to achieving leadership in the global forging business, a landmark Kalyani sees the company crossing by 2008.

Landing gear, engine and structured parts for aircraft and helicopters, large crankshafts for marine and power, connecting rods for locomotives and equaliser bars and spindles for heavy construction machinery will roll out from the Baramati plant.