Bharat Forge to foray into car market through small forgings

Pradeep Rane
30 September 2003

Mumbai: Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL) is planning to achieve 50 per cent of the company''s sales from exports by 2005 and also seeks to enter the car market through small forgings.

Currently its mainstay is large forgings for trucks and industrial applications. BFL aims to be among the top three companies globally in its segments, Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director, BFL, said at a conference organised by ICICI Securities in the US recently.

BFL has until now focused on large forgings used primarily in commercial vehicles, which accounts for 48 per cent of its turnover. But the market for car forgings is four times that of commercial vehicles forgings and BFL plans to build capacities in this segment.

BFL''s supplies to Toyota for the world car platform will commence during the latter part of FY04 and this could potentially propel rapid growth. BFL''s move into exports of car components will help maintain this momentum.

BFL continues to maintain its leadership position in the domestic market with a market share of 80 per cent and is the preferred supplier to all leading domestic companies. In order to develop a well-balanced portfolio in exports, BFL is increasing its exposure to the oil and gas industry by manufacturing wellhead equipment, which accounted for 6 per cent of FY03 sales.

Similarly, by catering to the Chinese auto market, BFL has developed a balanced export portfolio and moved away from its US-centric tilt, Baba Kalyani said at the I-Sec conference.