NBC Bearings eyeing market leadership with aggressive strategy

Fourth plant coming up in Gujarat

NBC Bearings is the premier brand of India’s leading bearing manufacturer and exporter, National Engineering Industries Ltd. (NEI), a flagship of the C.K. Birla Group. Established in 1946, the company has very strong association with almost all automotiveNBC-SanjeevTaparia-pic-1 manufacturers in India and also with multinationals from Europe and the US. NBC manufactures a wide range of bearings for automotive, industrial and railway applications, including large diameter special bearings for the Railways, steel mills, heavy engineering industries and power generation plants.

Over the past 60 years, NBC has become the fastest growing brand in the bearing segment in the country and currently produces over 100 million bearings in more than 1,000 sizes every year. It has the technical expertise and experience to develop bearings ranging from 10 mm to 2,000 mm diameter, including ball bearings, tapered roller bearings, double-row angular contact (DRAC) bearings, and cylindrical and spherical roller bearings.

NBC has three production plants, at Jaipur, Newai (60 km from Jaipur) and Manesar (in Haryana), with world-class manufacturing and process technology. Construction of the fourth plant, a green field project at Savli in Gujarat, with an initial investment of Rs. 325 crores, is nearing completion and will commence production shortly. The company is also planning to establish a separate line at the new facility for manufacturing ball bearings and tapered bearings exclusively for the export market.

“The overall capacity of the existing plants is 100 million bearings per annum. We are planning to further raise this by 30 million with the completion of the first phase of the new project and another 30 million more in the second phase”, says Mr. Sanjeev Taparia, Senior Vice President, Marketing, NEI Ltd., in a casual chat with MOTORINDIA.

NBC bearings are widely used by two- and three-wheelers, cars, trucks, tractors and other railway applications as well, with 70 per cent of its total turnover going for the automotive sector. The company has emerged a leading exporter of bearings to over 20 countries across five continents, with five new countries added to the list every year.

Research and development

Referring to the company’s focus on R&D, Mr. Taparia says: “NBC is committed to continuously creating relevant, innovative and effective products for its customers by understanding and anticipating trends in industries and technology. We have partnered with ConMet of USA to manufacture pre-set hub assemblies for heavy commercial vehicle applications. This unique product gives a service life of 300,000 km without the need for any servicing and reduces assembly labour and maintenance costs.”

Pre-set hubs utilize pre-adjusted bearings to facilitate proper installation, extend seal and bearing life and ease maintenance. Almost 90 per cent of the heavy trucks in North America use the pre-set hub technology. “We have also set up a new R&D lab with state-of-the-art facilities in Jaipur for further research in lubrication and sealing”, he adds.

NBC-pic-1NBC is also focusing on increasing its product range by adding 100 new sizes every year. The company has its good presence in the aftermarket with a strong network of 500 stockists present at all district levels. The company works through its stockist network to check the sale of spurious parts to its aftermarket customers.

With its sustained focus on the overseas markets, NBC has done well on the export front, showing an impressive export growth rate of eight per cent in Q1 of FY14. The company registered an annual turnover of Rs. 1,350 crores in FY13 with 50 per cent of its business coming from ball bearings, 25 per cent from tapered bearings and the rest from its other products. NBC occupies the second position in India in the bearings segment with a 26 per cent market share and is now aggressively working towards becoming the market leader in the near future.