JK Tyre to invest Rs 75 cr for hiking radial tyre capacity
Mysore: JK Tyre has earmarked Rs 75 crore to expand the capacity of its Vikrant truck radial tyre facility at Mysore from the present 2.4 lakh tyres to 3.5 lakh per year. The expansion may be completed by April 2004. According to JK Tyre’s new president Arun K Bajoria, “The company will also undertake small expansions in its three bias tyre facilities, and all investments in expansion will made by a combination of internal accruals and debt.” While the passenger car industry is 68 per cent radialised, the commercial truck and bus industry in India has been radialised by 1 per cent - negligible compared to the global average of about 70 per cent. JK Tyre has forecasted radialisation of light commercial vehicles will increase from 5 per cent to 25 per cent by 2005. “The process of convincing the industry that radials constitute a marked advantage has been very difficult,” said JK Tyre general manager (marketing) Neeraj Bhatia, adding, “but we realize that an increase in realization can only happen if we interface directly with our customer base, and this has brought us the successes we have had so far.” In line with its forecast, JK Tyre plans to invest Rs 30 crore over the next two years in developing servicing and retail infrastructure to increase access and education on radial tyres.
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Telco sales zoom 68 per cent in May
Mumbai: Tata Engineering has recorded a substantive 67.9 per cent jump in total sales of vehicles sold during May as compared to the sales achieved during the same month last year with the passenger car business contributing largely to the increase. The total number of vehicles sold during the month was 21,929, out of which domestic sales stood at 20,715, according to a company release. Sales of commercial vehicles in May was 9,800, an increase of 37.3 per cent over 7,140 vehicles sold during the same period last year, it said. Cumulative sales of commercial vehicles during the current fiscal increased by 24 per cent to 16,848 as against 13,587 number of vehicles sold during the first two months of last fiscal. The company registered a total domestic sale of 10,915 passenger vehicles in May, 2003 - a huge 110 per cent increase over May last year - to take the cumulative sale this fiscal to 18,846 numbers. The Indigo model clocked a sales volume of 1,983 to retain its position as the largest selling model in its segment in the domestic market, the release said.Sale of utility vehicles during the month was 2,160 with the Tata Safari notching up a growth of 15 per cent.
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Maruti sells 47 per cent more in May
New Delhi: Maruti Udyog has clocked domestic sales of 36,514 units in May and increased its market share to 60 per cent, riding on high sales of entry level Maruti 800 and premium small car WagonR. The company’s sales in May registered a growth of nearly 47 per cent (24,762 units) over the corresponding period previous year. Sales of the M800 grew by a whopping 80 per cent in May 2003 to 16,907 units over the same month last year, while WagonR clocked a robust 132 per cent growth to 5,179 units. The excise duty cut, revamp of Maruti sales and service network and strengthening of its non-manufacturing business areas helped the company to notch up a robust marketshare, industry experts said. The car major had crossed the 60 per cent market share in December 2002. Although its sales grew and reached an all-time high in March 2003, its marketshare could not cross 55 per cent.
Maruti Udyog has recorded a steep growth in sales and market share at a time when customers are reaping benefits of an eight per cent excise duty reduction in the budget.
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Adlux group to invest Rs 350 cr for manufacturing white goods in Kerala
Kochi: The Kuwait-based Adlux group is planning to invest over Rs 350 crore in Kerala for setting up white goods manufacturing facility and a super-speciality cardiac hospital at Karukutty, near the Kochi international airport. The group, which acquired the plant and 60-acre property of Premier Cables which is under liquidation, for a consideration of Rs 20.01 crore, would be setting up a 1.5 lakh sq ft facility for manufacturing electronics and home appliances. Already the machinery of the erstwhile Premier Cables has been disposed of and the property was being developed. Incidentally, this was not among the projects showcased at the Global Investor Meet (GIM) organised by the Kerala government recently. Adlux Technologies Trading Company, the parent company, has two subsidiaries, Adlux Consumer Electronics manufacturing electronic goods and home appliances and Adlux Properties.

The proposed factory would be a high-tech facility to manufacture Adlux brands refrigerators, washing machines, colour televisions, VCDs, DVDs, grinders and gas tables and stoves, according to Gopinath Menon, vice-president of Alappat Consumer Electronics India Pvt Ltd, which is the Indian partner of Adlux Consumer Electronics.
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Jubilant Organosys, Radico Khaitan in race for Chitali Distillery
Mumbai: Jubilant Organosys and Radico Khaitan are among the three other companies have qualified to bid for the 100 per cent equity holding in Chitali Distillery, held by government of Maharashtra. The other three companies include Gwalior Distillers, Laxmi Organic Industries Ltd and Tinna Oils & Chemicals. The last two have submitted their bids in consortium. Chitali Distillery, located at Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, manufactures alcohol and alcohol based products through the molasses route. The company had reported a net loss of Rs 2.25 crore for the period ended January 31, 2003 on a turnover of Rs 8.66 crore. Jubilant Organosys has historically been a producer of acetyls and enjoys global positions in major products. The product range mainly comprises acetic acid, acetic anhydride, vinyl acetate monomer and ethyl acetate. A spokesperson for Jubilant Organosys told that the company being the largest consumer of industrial alcohol in Maharashtra, and hence bidding for Chitali Distillery makes business sense. Jubilant has a distillery at Pune in Maharashtra which is not sufficient to meet its captive demand. The company currently outsources 15 per cent of its total requirement and Chitali Distillery with a capacity of around 150 lakh litre would reduce the gap by 3-5 per cent, the spokesperson added.
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Bhel bags Rs 772-cr IOC order for setting up power plant
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) has secured the highest ever Rs 772 crore order from IOC for setting up a 120 mw captive power plant at Panipat refinery. The order is the largest-value single order ever secured by Bhel’s industry sector business segment. A company release said, Bhel will set up the integrated power plant on turnkey basis which has been accorded by IOC as part of its refinery expansion and petrochemical project at panipat. Engineers India Ltd (EIL) is the engineering and project management consultant for this project. The project will be commissioned in 24 months. Bhel’s work scope in the project includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply, installation, erection, testing and commissioning of the power plant on turnkey basis. Major equipment to be supplied includes four numbers each of 30 mw gas turbine generators and heat recovery steam generators of 110 tonne per hour capacity with two numbers utility boilers of 230 tonne per hour capacity, associated auxiliaries and balance of plant equipment.
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NTPC-Rlys JV to set up 1,000 MW thermal power plant in Bihar
New Delhi: The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Railways will sign an agreement shortly to set up a 1,000 mw thermal power plant at Nabinagar in Bihar. It will be a 51:49 joint venture. “It was decided that the Railways will get a majority share since the objective is to primarily meet the railway requirement for traction purposes,” said an official. The agreement will also provide for the power to be evacuated for other consumers by NTPC whenever the two sides agree to do so. The Railways and NTPC had in February 2002 signed a memorandum of understanding for generation of 2,000 mw. The project for 1,000 mw is expected to start taking shape now with the government coming up with the Electricity Act. The electricity rates being charged to the Railways by the state electricity boards is about 3.5-4 per cent more than the commercial rates. The Railways was already drawing direct electricity at Dadri and Auraiya which had helped it save about Rs 72-100 crore per annum, said an official. Based on the success of the first plant, the joint venture (JV) will set up another 1,000 mw plant. The projects are likely to be commissioned in around five years time.
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BSES is now Reliance Energy — To set up transmission, trading arms
Mumbai: BSES Ltd was on Monday fully inducted into the Reliance conglomerate, with the shareholders of the country's oldest private electricity distribution utility voting to rename it as Reliance Energy Ltd. The company would also set up two wholly-owned subsidiaries for power transmission and trading businesses. Anil Ambani, chairman & managing director, told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting that BSES would focus its strategy on integrated service, well tested by Reliance in its petrochemicals business where it operated along the entire chain. The integrated service would include generation, transmission, distribution, trading and bundling of services in the power sector, or "from well head to wall socket" as Ambani puts it. Reliance Energy Transmission, one of the planned subsidiaries, would enhance the company's reliability in supplying power to its own network and to "networks across the country". The other company, Reliance Energy Trading, would trade in electricity, both physically as well as through derivatives.
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Tata Steel bets on brand premium
Bangalore: Tata Iron and Steel Co Ltd (Tata Steel) expects to double its premium on branded products by year-end, officials said. "We will definitely see our premium for branded products going up to Rs 1,000 per tonne by year end from Rs 500 per tonne," Anup Sahay, chief of marketing (distribution & branded products), said. Such hike in premium is in line with the company's vision to turn economic value added (EVA) positive by 2007, officials added. The increment in premium pricing would directly swell the operating margins for the company given the current firmness in global prices, Ramesh Mani, chief (sales flat products), said. However, he did not detail the expected margin expansion. it may be recalled that the firm reported a jump of 990 basis points in operating margins to 26 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2002-03, following superior product mix in a firm price environment. Tata Steel, which plans to report 29 per cent top line for the current fiscal from branded goods, expects 25-30 per cent of the flat products sold this year would be branded, officials said. The recently launched Steelium and Shakti brands would power sales in the branded flats segments, Mani said. The company expects to sell 3,85,000 tonnes of Steelium and 1,60,000 tonnes of Shakti branded products in the current financial year, Sahay said. Branded products contributed 14 per cent to the company's sales last financial year.
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RINL plans to overcome feedstock shortage
Viskhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), is searching for alternatives to augment its iron ore inventories to facilitate unhindered production at normal levels, B.K Panda, chairman and managing director, has said. He told newspersons here that the ore supply position had improved slightly than a week ago, but the plant authorities were not relying on the National Mineral Development Corporation alone and exploring other avenues. ``The Orissa Mining Development Corporation, also under the union steel ministry, has assured us a supply of 10,000 tonnes of iron ore a month, which would be of some relief,'' he said. Panda said the plant had also applied for leasing some mines in Chhattisgarh and for supply from Jharkand too where IISCO had mines. ``If these efforts bear fruit, the plant would be in a more secure position. The NMDC, which agreed at the time of setting up this plant, to supply all the ore required from its Bailadilla mines has not been able to keep up the supply of late,'' he explained.
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Panel moots co-op to take over FACT
Kochi: Save FACT Action Committee has mooted a multi-State co-operative society under MSCS Act 1984 to take over Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) and submitted a proposal to the state chief minister for consideration of the government.

Proposing to form the limited liability co-operative society, Kerala FACT Co-operative Societies (KEFCO), the Convenor of the Action Committee, SCS Menon, said that Kefco would be created in line with the major fertiliser units in the co-operative sector, Iffco and Kribhco. FACT, he said, the main artery of Kerala's industrial sector, functions and operates under the public sector undertaking, having 97.39 per cent stake of paid up capital with the union government, is in the centre' disinvestment list under the government's disinvestment policy. At this juncture, to save the unit the committee had mooted this idea to take over the company.
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Ceat plans to set up Rs 250-cr truck radial unit
Chennai: Ceat Ltd plans to invest Rs 250 crore to set up a unit to manufacture radial tyres for trucks, according to Kalyan K. Paul, vice-president, sales and marketing, Ceat Ltd. He said that the unit would have the capacity to manufacture 50,000 to 60,000 tyres per month. Paul said that internationally the market was moving towards radials and the company expected the Indian market would also grow in that direction, especially with the proposed investment into the road sector, which was expected to bring in better roads. The company has imported radial truck tyres from China to test the market, with the first consignment of 300 to 350 tyres coming in two months ago. The company manufactures radials for passenger cars and this capacity is expected to be ramped up from 35,000 to one lakh tyres per month. The investment in the expansion is around Rs 75 crore to Rs 80 crore in the current year, Paul said. In the two and three-wheeler segment, the company, which has followed a policy of outsourcing, has increased production capacity from 60,000 to five lakh tyres per month, he said. The company has chalked out an aggressive sales strategy to increase market share and planned to tie up with leading original equipment manufacturers. It also plans to increase its imports from the Sri Lankan unit. At present, the imports from Sri Lanka account for almost 5 per cent of the turnover.
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Coromandel joins race for AP Govt stake in Godavari Fert
Hyderabad: Ending the suspense over its plans to acquire the controlling stake in Godavari Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (GFCL), Coromandel Fertilisers Ltd (CFL), part of the Chennai-based Rs 4,500-crore Murugappa group, has decided to join the race to acquire the Andhra Pradesh Government's holding in GFCL. The CFL board, which met on Monday, has approved a proposal for acquiring the equity shares of GFCL held by the AP Government and to submit its bid to the Implementation Secretariat, a body constituted by the AP Government to supervise the public enterprise reform process. Further on the route of acquisition for attaining full management control over GFCL, the CFL board also approved a proposal, if in case it was chosen as the preferred bidder, to make a public announcement to the shareholders of GFCL for acquiring further 20 per cent equity of GFCL under the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997. The last date for the submission of bids was fixed as June 21. Close on the heels of the AP Government's decision to divest its 25.87 per cent holding in the Rs 994-crore GFCL early last month, CFL has picked up further equity holding of 1.5-lakh shares in GFCL's Rs 32-crore paid-up equity through open market purchases on May 19. As a result of this, Coromandel currently holds 45,63,103 equity shares of GFCL, constituting 14.26 per cent.
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Vardhaman to seek nod for delisting from DSE
New Delhi: Vardhaman Spinning & General Mills Ltd would seek shareholders' approval at the forthcoming annual general meeting of the company for delisting its securities from the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE). According to a communiqué from the company to the Stock Exchange, Mumbai, the board of directors of Vardhaman Spinning had on May 21 approved the delisting of its securities from DSE.
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Hinduja TMT renews BPO deal with US client
Mumbai: Hinduja TMT (HTMT) has renewed its business process outsourcing (BPO) contract with a US-based health care insurance company, which is likely to yield approximately Rs 100 crore in revenues. The claim-processing contract has been renewed for two years with an option for further renewal of one year and is likely to yield approximately Rs 100 crore (over $20 million) in revenues during this period, HTMT said in a release here on Friday. The BPO unit of HTMT for the client has grown from 20 processors in August 2000 to 450 now, starting with one product and presently processing six products from the health care major, it said. The client is one of the leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care products, it added. On new businesses, HTMT said it has also signed up contracts with three major customers out of which two were for call centres - one from UK Telecom service provider and another from a US-based Broadband DSL and Internet Company.
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