By IANS,
Gummudipoondi (Tamil Nadu) : Greaves Cotton Ltd (GCL) announced Friday that it would start making diesel engines for four-wheeler goods carriers to cash in on the growing potential of this segment.
“The three-wheeler goods carrying segment suffers setbacks because of high interest rates, inflation and lack of credit,” P. Sachdev, managing director and CEO of GCL, told reporters here Friday.
“To ensure growth, we have to enter other segments like the four-wheeler goods carriers,” he said.
“Compared to last year when 80 percent of our turnover was from diesel engines, today the business mix has changed. The contribution of diesel engines has come down to 72 percent and the balance is from infrastructure equipments,” Sachdev added.
GCL has commissioned its Rs.220 million ($5.5 million) new plant – the sixth one in Tamil Nadu to make road rollers, soil compactors – and a training centre at the Sipcot Industrial Estate, Gummudipoondi, 50 km from Chennai.
“The new plant would double our compactor capacity to 100 per month and also increase the ready mix concrete (RMC) batching plant output. We are planning to export concreting equipments,” Sachdev added.
The company has also signed technical collaboration agreement with Germany’s Bomag GmbH to roll out 19 tonne vibratory soil compactors used in road, dam, airport runway and irrigation projects.
Sachdev added that the company would set up a new unit in Gummudipoondi to make petrol engines to power specialised vehicles at an outlay of Rs.100 million.
Earlier, inaugurating the new compactor plant, GCL chairman Karan Thapar said: “The company’s infrastructure business group is growing at 60 percent rate and commands good market share with possibilities of exports.”
Meanwhile, GCL declared third interim dividend of Rs.2 per share involving a cash outgo of Rs.143.3 million.