Seeking to expand its partnership with Maruti Suzuki, diversified global conglomerate Caparo Group is looking to supply auto components made from eco-friendly composite materials to the top carmaker in India.
"We want to experiment with eco-friendly composite materials, instead of steel. This composite material, made from carbon and petroleum products, is much lighter and it is also being used by Boeing for its Dreamliner aircraft," Caparo Group Chairman and NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul told PTI.
Paul, whose London-headquartered Caparo group has a global turnover of over Rs 10,000 crore, is currently in China after a visit to Japan, where he met global auto giant Suzuki Corporation's Chairman Osamu Suzuki and discussed with him a proposal for supply of auto components made from these composites for Maruti Suzuki cars in India.
With Suzuki Corporation as its main shareholder, Maruti Suzuki is India's largest carmaker and Caparo group is one of its main auto component suppliers.
"These composites are efficient and technically viable materials. We discussed it with Japanese carmarker Suzuki Corporation and we hope that we will be able to supply some (products made of this material) to Maruti Suzuki," Paul said in an interview during his visit here.
"This material is much more lighter and eco friendly. We have built a racing car, Caparo T-1, to prove the use of composite materials. We have been working on it for six years. We keep on working on upgrading technology and we would like to do that in our plants in India, where we have set up 32 plants in last ten years," Paul said.
Asked further about his Japan visit, Paul said that Caparo group is making various auto components for automobile industry in the UK and India and his meeting with Suzuki Chairman was related to this.
"We are suppliers to them (Suzuki) in a big way. We want to make the relationship even stronger," he said.
