Indian auto industry set to roar
Wednesday, 17 October 2007, 19:30 IST
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New Delhi: With large-scale investments planned by domestic and foreign companies, India's automobile industry is set to witness a major boom, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). "Manufacturing transnational companies (TNCs) have started, or planning, large-scale investment projects in India," Unctad said in its annual World Investment Report released globally Tuesday. "Accordingly, the landscape of the country's automotive industry is likely to witness a dramatic change in the next few years," the agency said in a box entitled "Market-seeking India's automotive industry is booming". Stating that production of motor vehicles in India crossed 1.7 million vehicles in 2005-06, the report pointed out that Suzuki of Japan, Tata Motors and Hyundai of South Korea had emerged as significant players. It said Suzuki was planning to invest $1.65 billion by 2010 to expand capacity to one million and General Motors was looking at $300 million in a car assembly plant in Maharashtra to make 100,000 cars. This apart, Mahindra and Mahindra, Renault of France and Nissan of Japan planned $908 million in a new plant in Chennai with a capacity of 400,000 vehicles that was expected to start production in 2009. Similarly, Toyota Motors aimed to double its market share to 10 percent in four-five years with an investment of $500 million to increase production to 200,000 from the present 50,000 vehicles.
Source: IANS