NRB Bearings to tap global market

NRB Bearings, the Rs 303-crore, Mumbai-based auto ancillary supplier, is focusing on leveraging opportunities in the industrial sector and overseas markets in a bid to offset the sluggish demand from its key customer segment, the domestic automobile industry.

Senior company executives see potential for their products in the industrial segment, including electrical, heavy engineering and farm equipment sectors.

In the overseas market, NRB Bearings has received orders from leading European truck and automobile companies. The industrial segment and export sales together constituted about 15 per cent of the company's turnover of Rs 303 crore in FY07 and this will be raised to 20-25 per cent over the next two to three years.

The company refused to name the European automobile companies being targeted for exports. Meanwhile, in a bid to keep rising costs of inputs such as steel and allied metals under check, NRB Bearings is relying on operational efficiency.

The company's adjusted raw material costs as a percentage of net sales rose by 400 basis points on a yearly basis to 39.8 per cent in the December 2007 quarter.