By IANS,
Chennai : Cycle and engineering products manufacturer Tube Investments may exit China, where it manufactures cold drawn welded (CDW) tubes, if it does not find a local partner, a top company official said here Friday.
“A team has gone to China to explore options. We may continue to be in China if somebody is willing to work with us or we may exit the country,” said company managing director L. Ramkumar.
“We thought the market for CDW tubes would go up but it turned out otherwise,” Ramkumar told IANS.
However, he said he did not believe China is a “jinxed country” for the $3-billion Murugappa Group, of which Tube Investments is a part, even though another group firm, Carborandum Universal, severed ties with its Chinese partner in a joint venture there.
Carborandum recently signed a division agreement with the Chinese partner, under which it would run the abrasives business through its wholly-owned subsidiary while transferring other businesses to the other party.
Last month, the company board gave its approval for exploring options like being a contract manufacturer or tying up with another partner.
Ramkumar said Tube Investment was looking at new product lines such as chains in order to lessen its dependence on one segment.
“We are looking at entering the industrial chains segment and in the tubes segment, we are looking at stainless steel and aluminium tube products,” he said.
Another area was metal formed business, where he said the company hoped to secure orders from the Indian Railways.
Tube Investments will invest Rs.75 crore this fiscal on modernising its facilities and setting up a car door frame plant for Tata Motors’ Nano at Sanand in Gujarat.
“The funding will be from internal accruals,” Ramkumar said.