Harsh Sachdev, chief of marketing & sales (bearings), Tata Steel said, as part of the long-term strategy, Tata Bearings was moving towards four-wheeler customers rather than two-wheelers, which was a low margin high volume business. Tata Bearings was also moving its focus to bigger bearings.
Sachdev said, around 18 new customers were added in the last financial year including Ashok Leyland, Kerala Automobiles and Rane. Tata Bearings would also be the sole supplier of bearings for the Nano small car, for the bearings in its range. Of the 11 bearings, nine would be supplied by Tata Bearings.
Sachdev pointed out that in the past year there was a negative growth in the two-wheeler market while four-wheeler sales went up. In view of the changing scenario Tata Bearings had launched 29 new products.
Tata Bearings has a facility in Kharagpur spread over 64 acres. Through de-bottlenecking, the division would achievea nameplate capacity of 32 million bearings. Last financial year, capacity was at 28 million bearings.
However, Sachdev said the capacity was stretched and Tata Bearings was weighing a number of options and a decision would be made this year. Sachdev said, Tata Bearings was also looking at the international market. Exports to Bangladesh had already started from Kharagpur and next would be South East Asia. Sachdev said, exports to South East Asia could also be handled out of Kharagpur. The bearings division has a pan India presence with 90 operating stockists.
It aimed to reach further into the second and third rung towns.