Minda Kosei expanding its operations buoyed by India's growing demand for alloy wheels

India’s automotive sector is looking up. Leveraging the buoyancy, the multi-company, multi-product UNO Minda Group is expanding speedily. Haryana’s Bawal, where the company has five plants, is being developed as the Group’s growth hub in India.

Minda Kosei Aluminium Wheel’s (MKAWL) factory became operational at Bawal this year April while Minda TG Rubber’s (MTGRL) brand-new facility, located nearby, went on stream around same time a year ago.

With a targeted total investment of INR300 crore and installed capacity of 90,000 alloy wheels per month by January 2017, MKAWL has till date invested INR250 crore for an initial monthly production capacity of 60,000 wheels. The project is being developed jointly by UNO Minda and Kosei Aluminium Company of Japan.

The JV partners also have an aluminium alloy wheel plant in Chennai in India which UNO Minda holds a 40 percent stake and Kosei 60 percent.

In the light of the growing market for alloy wheels in premium cars, the alloy wheel supplier is mulling setting up a third facility in Gujarat. MKAWL though will start production at its greenfield facility in Gujarat by September 2018 under an equal partnership with Kosei. In the interregnum, it will supply alloy wheels to Suzuki’s plant in Gujarat from Bawal, which is currently under construction.

As per MD of Minda Kosei Aluminium Wheels and CTO of UNO Minda Group Naveesh Garg, on completion the Bawal facility will cater to major Indian automakers namely Ford India, General Motors at Talegaon, Volkswagen and Tata Motors.

Meanwhile, the supplies of alloy wheels for the Mahindra KUV 100 SUV have commenced from the Bawal plant. MKAWL is also developing alloy wheels for other existing Mahindra models including the Scorpio facelift and the XUV 500.

If the new alloy wheel plant is set up in Gujarat, it would be the second UNO Minda Group plant in the state after the Roki Minda facility that makes air intake systems. The new factory is expected to come up at a total investment of INR250 crore for a production capacity of 60,000 alloy wheels per month.

According to a recent study, the demand for aluminium alloy wheels in India is slated to rise growing at 20 per cent per annum basis. Presently, the downstream aluminium products account for just 15-18 per cent of the 2.7 million passenger vehicle market in India and are worth INR1,200-INR1,500 crore. With the Indian passenger vehicle market expected to grow to 5 million by 2020, the opportunity for aluminium alloy wheels suppliers is huge.

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