Delux Building New Bearing Plant in India

Delux Bearings Pvt. Ltd. (India) announced plans to invest Rs 150 million (USD $3.4 million) to build a new bearing manufacturing plant in Pune. In addition, Delux has just begun celebrating its 50th year in business with a Golden Jubilee, running from November 2006 through March 2007. The new facility, DJR Delux Bearings Ltd., is a joint venture of Delux and Amul Group (Rajkot). Delux said the production boost is designed to help the company increase its existing product range and develop bearings for Generation Next vehicles. Delux is also in the process of upgrading the design facilities at the sister company's manufacturing unit, Luxite Industries Ltd. Delux is hoping the expansion will help it better tap into India's fast-growing bearing demand. Announcing the new operation, Chairman Kirti D. Rathod said the company's core automotive and textile machine bearing demand in 2006 was up 20% over 2005. With the new operation online, growth is expected to top 25% per year. Delux currently manufactures a wide variety of bearings for automotive, light truck, tractor, industrial and textile applications. The new plant will reportedly deepen and widen its product offerings, and boost capacity by more than four million bearings per year.