India can be a global mfg hub: Timken

Timken, a Fortune 500 global leader in bearings and steel, feels that "there is a potential for India to emerge as a major global manufacturing hub," according to James W. Griffith, president and CEO.

Timken India, with a topline growth of 59 per cent last year, expects to grow this year "as well as last year," country manger Burkhard Stumpf said. The company is heavily investing in China and India to feed the two booming markets.

Though the Chinese and Indian markets are similar, there is a difference. The Chinese market for Timken is expanding rapidly with a fourth plant on the way.

Chinese demand is driven by the country's investment in infrastructure. Griffith characterises the Chinese growth rate as "spectacular" and the Indian growth rate as "good".

Timken, like all leading brick and mortar companies seeking to reinvent themselves as technology companies, is investing heavily in R&D. Griffith yesterday inaugurated Timken's R&D centre here which will house 250 employees. It is Timken's largest R&D centre outside the US and first in Asia.

Describing the global operations of Timken, Griffith said a Timken product is typically designed in Bangalore and Romania, on specifications developed in the US, manufactured in the US or Romania and sold locally everywhere.

The engineers in Bangalore will support application staff all over the world, design tools, do process engineering and develop IT applications for the rest of the company.

Timken has had a chequered history in India. It began in the late eighties with a bang in collaboration with the Tatas, ran into trouble, recovered all past losses by 2000, and is now set to leverage the boom in India to grow both the top and the bottomline.