Equipped with world-class testing and R&D facility
Gibraltar, the Indian air spring manufacturer, has set up a new plant near Kolkata with world class air spring manufacturing facility. Mr. Pronob Kumar Guha, Chairman & Managing Director, Gibraltar, an IIT alumnus and having long and in-depth knowledge of air springs from his three-decades-long association with air springs from various global associates, has decided to bring home the air spring technology by setting up a world class facility in Howrah.
The plant is one-of-its-kind with an in-house R&D facility headed by a team of the finest rubber technologists. Gibraltar also boasts of a world class testing facility, including a unique one of its kind Endurance testing machine to ensure that it can offer its customers the best quality and enable them to take advantage of great local prices. The in-house design team ensures that Gibraltar can cater to the entire air springs needs of the market. This new facility has greatly enhanced production capacity and is equipped to produce over 1,20,000 air springs in a year. The facility is currently ISO 9001:2008 certified and is already working towards ISO 14001 and ISO/TS 16949 certifications and plans are in place to obtain the OHSAS 18001 certification in the near future.
Asked what prompted him to set up this facility in India, Mr. Guha says: “Import substitution is a time-tested economic policy that aids the development of countries. The growing market for air springs naturally necessitated the development of air springs indigenously to prevent the outflow of dollar from the country.” The company has already been servicing the aftermarket from this brand new facility.
The recent market trends have prompted the Government to talk about promoting industries and exports in order to strengthen the country’s economy and turn around the falling trend in the rupee. This is completely in line with Gibraltar’s idea to bring the air spring technology home.
Asked how the OE sector has welcomed this move by Gibraltar, Mr. Guha states: “The OE sector in both the automotive world and the railway sector have been very helpful and encouraging when it came to giving out information and developing prototypes. However, in reality, we have been getting a sense that there still is a preference of imports or global JVs over the ‘new face’ when it comes to handing out the orders. This trend is what we are hoping to break. In fact, there are about 5,000 SME rubber units in the country accounting for the largest segment in SME clusters.Most of the imported rubber finished products consists of low quality, low technology products. The most disturbing aspect is that all raw materials for rubber industry attract higher rates of import duty than finished products. While finished goods can be imported at a duty of 2.5 to 10 per cent, the import duty on all key raw materials ranges between 10 to 70 per cent. Hence, in order to support and protect the Indian manufacturers, the import duty on the finished imported rubber products needs to be hiked by the Government. We have also been hoping for some support from the Government to encourage our endeavor to contribute towards strengthening the country’s economy. However, very little has been done to curb the influx of imports from China and Turkey and to encourage having home grown industries for the same.”
Gibraltar, equipped with an excellent team of professional managers, highly experienced technologists and a product design & development team, is having the right kind of indigenized product with global taste.
With the right product range, completely indigenized new developments, world class new facility, close association with its customers, Gibraltar has the right mix to create a new success story for the face of India.