India Rises as a Preferred Global Manufacturing Destination for Commercial Vehicles
Published On Mar 29, 2016
The past few years have marked a great shift in the manufacturing trend around the world. India has now surfaced as one of the premier destinations for the production process of major commercial vehicle brands in Europe and America. Many icons from the west have set up a strong manufacturing footprint in the country, led by Swedish giants Volvo and Scania.
Volvo forayed into the Indian terrain more than a decade back and since then, the company has raised a major manufacturing base in Bengaluru, and now commands a sound share of the heavy-duty market. Following the company's success, Scania also touched Indian shores, going on to similarly build a strong production hub in Karnataka.
Companies such as these look to the Indian model for its cost efficient, reliable production process, and many of them capitalise on it by maintaining a regional centre here. The government’s recent thrust towards a business-oriented ecosystem aimed at foreign investment has also strengthened the domestic production space.
Stefan Palskog, president of Scania India, said, “From a logistical point of view, there are a lot of countries that are closer to India than Sweden. The logistic cost of a completely-built product is important. In the long run, we will be able to export buses made in Bengaluru to Europe as well.”
Along with European mega-brands, a huge profile of other foreign firms have also poured in on the promising Indian market to build products and make sales. “We have started with Russia where temperatures are -25 degree centigrade. So, we will go step-by-step there. We are exporting components to the UK from Pune, where they are assembled to be shipped to other parts of the world and we are exporting components to the US,” said Vipin Sondhi, managing director and chief executive for the Indian arm of JCB, a British manufacturer.
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