Yamaha's Chennai plant to go on stream end of 2014

Company & Vendors together to invest Rs 2,550 cr

India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM) has said its Chennai plant will go on stream by end of 2014. The company said due to economic slowdown, the facility was delayed by about an year.

The green field plant will attract investments to the tune of around Rs 2,550 crore, including from vendors.

Riuji Kawashima, deputy managing director and Head of Business Expansion Group, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd told Business Standard, “As per original plan the plant was due to be operational from January 2014. However, due to economic slowdown it was delayed by almost a year. We are now looking at starting schedule production by end of 2014”.

The construction and commissioning work is in full swing now. The plant is expected to start production by end of the current year, with an initial capacity of 4.5 lakh units per annum. The production capacity would be ramped up in stages to 1.8 million units by 2018.

He added, the products will also be exported to ASEAN, Africa and South American markets.

Kawashima said “it would be difficult to comment on the exact%age of exports from the plant at the moment as production would depend upon the prevalent market conditions and other factors after the operationalisation of the plant. However, exports currently account for around 25% of IYM total output.”

Speaking about the investment, he said as per the MoU signed between IYM and Tamil Nadu Government, the company committed to invest Rs 1,500 crore for setting up the new plant in Chennai.

"gThe Chennai plant of the company is being developed following global manufacturing best practices and at par with international standards. To optimise cost of production and bring in further manufacturing efficiency we are developing a Vendor Park within the facility.” he said.

Already seven vendors of India Yamaha Motor have signed MoUs with the Government of Tamil Nadu to set up their facilities in the vendor park with a proposed investment of approximately Rs 900 crore and generating direct employment opportunities for approximately 3,500 personnel.

In addition to these seven MoU companies, few other vendors of India Yamaha Motor are setting up their facilities near our plant to cater to the needs of the plant further increasing the total investment, said Kawashima.