Bharat Forge plans Rs 400cr capex

Bharat Forge is planning an investment of over Rs 400 crore for a greenfield facility in India.

"We will be completing our current phase of expansion by March 2006, and will go in for a greenfield facility about an year after that involving an investment of over Rs 400 crore," Amit B Kalyani, executive director of Bharat Forge, said.

He added that the new facility will be for larger products, sub-assemblies and value-added products.

The company is currently in the process of doubling forging capacity at its Pune unit to 2,50,000 tonne. "We have invested about Rs 600 crore at Pune," Baba Kalyani, chairman of Bharat Forge, said.

The company, which has facilites in Europe, North America and China, expects to have a total capacity of 6,00,000 tonne after the expansion.

Bharat Forge is also moving up the value chain and getting into product development with customers. "We are now making attempts to move from contract manufacturing to becoming a full-fledged service supplier. We are getting into co-development with our customers and do testing of prototypes including fatigue testing," Kalyani said.