SKF India, an Indian business arm of Swedish giant AB SKF, today formally inaugurated its third factory at the industrial estate of Haridwar to supply bearings to Hero Honda and other auto manufacturers in Uttarakhand.
And tomorrow, the company, which has so far invested Rs 421 crore in India, would start production at its new unit in Ahmedabad in Gujarat also. Its two units are already operational in Bangalore and Pune.
“SKF’s strategic move to increase production capacity through the Haridwar plant signifies our commitment to serve our customers effectively and will also allow us to further increase our share in the developing vehicle aftermarket service segment,” said AB SKF president and CEO Tom Johnstone.
“Uttarakhand is an emerging industrial hub in India and with this factory we can meet our customers’ needs and introduce our products to the vehicle market faster,” Johnstone said.
The factory represents an investment of around SEK 250 million (INR 1,500 million) and utilises state-of-the-art machining technology to manufacture Deep Groove Ball Bearings (DGBB) for the auto sector. Situated over an area of 10 acres, the new factory will have a production capacity of 45 million bearings annually.
SKF has been consistently taking at all its facilities across the globe and in India. The Haridwar factory is being modelled and built strictly to the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) green factory recommendations for energy efficiency where the architectural structure, business processes and solutions is developed to minimise the environmental impact.
The facility contains a unique rain water harvesting systemfor better water conservation and utilisation in its premise.
The new factory will employ around 200 people when full capacity is reached. The Ahmedabad factory will be inaugurated tomorrow will manufacture medium to large size bearings of various types to serve customer segments such as railways, wind and heavy industries. The investment amounts to around SEK 450 million and the factory will employ around 300 people when full capacity is reached.
