Rane Madras Sets up New Plant for Ball Joints

Rane Madras, a part of the Rs. 1,350 crore Rane group, engaged in the manufacture of auto components, has established a new facility for producing outer ball joints. Addressing presspersons here on Monday, L. Ganesh, Vice-Chairman of Rane Group, said the plant, located in Varanavasi (near Kancheepuram), Tamil Nadu, has an installed capacity of 5.65 million ball joints involving an investment of Rs. 14 crore. The company was already exporting ball joints to North America and Mexico, Mr. Ganesh said. The company is a leading supplier of steering gears and suspension linkages to every segment in the domestic automobile industry. On the export market, TRW, a global leader, has identified Rane as a potential and cost effective supplier of outer ball joints. The company has exported 4.65 million units to TRW in 2005-06. To serve customers like Tata Motors and Mahindra &Mahindra, Rane (Madras) was setting up a plant in Uttaranchal which was scheduled to commence operations in April next year, Mr. Ganesh said. The outlay will be Rs. 9 crore and the company had already invested Rs. 6 crore. Besides, Rane NSK, another group company in joint venture with NSK Steering of Japan, was setting up a plant in the centre. Uttaranchal will be the second location for Rane NSK Steering, which already has a plant in Chennai. According to S. Parthasarathy, President, Rane Madras, a dedicated facility in the Chennai plant for outer ball joints had been established with an outlay of Rs. 10 crore. The Rane group was planning to set up two plants near Tiruchi ¡ª one through Rane Engine Valves and the other through Rane Brake Linings. The future plans for Rane Madras included increase in exports to 25 per cent from 18 per cent of production. Rane Madras has reported total sales of Rs. 277 crore in 2005-06. The products range will also be expanded to include hydrostatic steering gear for farm tractors and rack and pinion steering gears, Mr. Ganesh said.