Contitech, a leading manufacturer of air springs for the global commercial vehicle, rail, passenger cars and industrial applications, was one of the early entrants in the Indian air springs market teaming up with Resistoflex way back in 1995. Over the years, Contitech has established itself as a major supplier of air springs to Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and to many other independent fleet operators in the replacement market.
In 2009 Contitech achieved global sales of Euro 179 million in the air springs business. Contitech has 7 manufacturing facilities for air springs in China, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Mexico and Turkey.
Despite being one of the early entrants in the Indian market, the company continues to import air springs into India and sells it through its Indian partner Resistoflex. Mr. Diethelm Bauch, Vice President for Commercial Vehicles OEM, Contitech says, “We are still not decided on setting up a plant in India for manufacturing commercial vehicle air springs. We are looking at a marketsize of 130,000 air springs annually, which will encourage us to set up a manufacturing facility in India”.
The Indian air springs market size for commercial vehicles is estimated at around 100, 000 units and is growing at 15 to 20% annually. Contitech has recently set up a plant in China and the next plan is to build a facility in South America, says Mr. Bauch. “We have excellent business relationship with including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo and other OEMs and are part of many of the upcoming projects in India. We will be able to cater to the existing demand in the Indian market from our plant in Korea”, he added.
Contitech has a strong business for sir springs in the rail segment in India. The company has established a plant near Delhi for manufacturing air springs for the rail segment. “The Indian railway market is one of the fastest-expanding markets in which we are active”, said Mr. Friedrich Hoppmann, head of the ContiTech Railway Engineering segment last year when the company announced its plans for India. “We are localizing our manufacturing operations so as to be in a better position to cater for the demand. Also, we are planning to increase annual output substantially.” The company already supplies about half the air spring systems for rail vehicles in India.
In the Indian market, particularly the commercial vehicle segment, the bus segment has starting adapting to air springs faster than the truck segment. The luxury bus and coach segment are predominantly fitted with air suspension systems and even the city buses are moving towards this technology.
The recent JnNURM order for 15,000 city buses has been completely on air suspension systems. This has resulted in exponential growth of air springs business in India. Globally, the truck segment has been driver of growth for air springs. In the US, nearly 75% of the trucks and trailers are on air suspension systems. Similar is the case in Europe. In India, currently the penetration for air suspension system in the truck and trailer segment is quite insignificant. But it’s a question of time.
