Tata Motors weighs China foray

Tata Motors is planning to enter the Chinese market and is looking at the option of setting up an assembling unit in the country.

Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said this on Monday at the launch of Tata Novus, the first rollout in India from the stable of Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company.

"We are looking at various options," he said but refused to divulge further details.

Incidentally, Tata Motors sources raw materials from China. Kant said the company's inorganic growth efforts like the acquisition of the Daewoo unit and Hispano in Spain would continue.

"Whenever there is opportunity, we shall look into it," he said.

On Tata Novus, Kant said the new facility at Jamshedpur for Novus range bears a testimony to the successful integration of Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicles with Tata Motors.

Tata Motors MD informed that the company would roll out more models in India from the Daewoo fold over the next two years. This would be part of the company's declared strategy to invest Rs 6,000 crore in the next five years in commercial vehicles and passenger cars.

Kant said Novus, a tipper for the mining and construction industry, would revolutionalise the heavy duty vehicle mart in the country the way Tata 407 did the LCV category a decade ago.

"We are confident that the Novus range would change the rules of the game," he said.

The main competitor of Tata Motors in this segment is Volvo. The Jamshedpur facility would have a production capacity of 6,000 vehicles per year.

Tata Motors will tap markets in China, Pakistan, Japan, the Middle East and South Africa with Novus.

On the company's acquisition plans overseas, Kant said, "We can never say yes or no, but we are always open to good proposals."

Speaking on the response to the newly launched light commercial vehicle, the Ace, he said the vehicle was launched in five states, and all the 3,000 units produced each month are currently being sold out.