Knorr Bremse India (KBI) has announced the setting up its second manufacturing facility in Jamshedpur for manufacturing commercial vehicle braking systems. The new facility is being set up to cater to the requirement of Tata Motors’ World truck project.
KB established its business for the Indian market in 2003 in a 74:26 joint venture with the Tata AutoComp Group. The company started commercial production in June 2005, and by June 2006, KBI achieved a milestone of manufacturing 100,000 actuators. KBI is catering to the Indian market by developing modern air braking systems for commercial vehicles. It currently manufactures air dryers, foot-brake valves, hand-brake valves, 4-circuit protection valves, relay valves, quick-release valves, brake chambers, spring-brake actuators and auto-slack adjusters.
“We will be a complete end-to-end provider of braking solutions for the Indian commercial vehicle market by 2010, says Mr. Venkat Potturu, CEO of Knorr Bremse Systems for Commercial vehicles India Private Ltd. Apart from the range of products mentioned earlier, KBI is developing foundation brakes for LCVs and HCVs, which by 2009 will be productionised in India. The company is also developing compressors which are under validation process. In 2009, the company will start manufacturing of these compressors. By next year the company is also planning to export air dryers and automatic slack adjusters. KBI is currently supplying components to Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland.
KBI has an established capacity to manufacture 100,000 air brake systems per annum. The company is also closely looking at the trailer market in India and has supplied a few components to Tata Dutch Lanka Trailers. KBI plans to offer trailer control valves, load-sensing valves, palm couplings, antilock braking systems, electronic braking systems, viscous dampers and air-disc brakes.
The company’s products comply with the Economic Commission for Europe’s ECE R13 safety regulations project. Other interesting products which the company developed and supplied are the pneumatic valves for lift axle, which are fitted on the 8X2 – 3118 model recently launched by Tata Motors.
Mr. Venkat Potturu says that India could well become a development centre for products, particularly for emerging markets like China, Russia and Brazil. In fact, Bendix which is part of the Knorr Bremse Group worldwide, is already working with KBI for developing certain products.
KBI has established the necessary infrastructure and has been rated as one of the best facilities worldwide in terms of product development, testing and manufacturing capabilities. All products are tested for 100 per cent performance and leak test are performed for all products on line. KBI has computerized test rigs to ensure test accuracy and is also equipped with a fully equipped Quality Control lab.
Globally, Knorr Bremse is an OEM to all the global commercial vehicle manufacturing giants, namely, Daimler, MAN, Scania, Volvo and International Trucks. With all these manufacturers setting up their business in India, KBI sees significant growth opportunity. Also regulations regarding safety and emission norms can drive future business for KBI. For example, ABS is a compulsory fitment on long distance buses and Tractor Trailers.
This is one product which will witness significant growth in the coming years. With more stringent emission norms, there will be requirement for more efficient compressors. All these legislations and regulations will drive future business for KBI. The company is also supplying products for the new generation low-floor city buses which have air assisted accessories.
For example, the new iBus developed by Ashok Leyland comes with kneeling function and has some of the parts for critical functions supplied by KBI. In 2007, KBI clocked a turnover of Rs. 75 crores.
