Mr. Arun Kumar, Managing Director of Firestone TVS, said: “We are very happy with the progress on the Firestone TVS JV. The relationship with the TVS Group has been excellent. We have found a good partner and the co-operation has been very good. We have recently completed the first phase of expansion which can take care of our requirement for the next couple of years before we look at further expansion. India is a very interesting and important market for us and we are here for the long haul”.
Currently the Indian plant manufactures rubber bellows locally and metal parts are being imported. What is interesting about the Madurai plant is that it is one of the very few plants which can make air springs for types of segment including buses, trucks and trailers, rail and industrial. The plant is very flexible to cater to even small volumes.
The Madurai facility is built over an area of 25,000 sq. ft. equipped with state-of-the-art machinery to manufacture air springs as per Firestone’s global standards. The Firestone TVS plant has been set-up with a capacity to manufacture 100,000 air springs per annum in two shifts. The company is currently supplying to Wheels India, TACO-Hendrickson and to the Jamna Auto-Ridewell combine.
Mr. Arun Kumar said: Firestone is the undoubted global leader in air springs. Firestone comes with nearly 75 years of experience and expertise in air springs manufacturing with strong global OEM relationships. In the US, Firestone is a 100 per cent supplier of air springs to companies like Freightliner, Paccar, Hendrickson, ArvinMeritor, SAF Holland and many others. This has immensely benefited the JV in India too. “Our approach to this business is very different. When we work with a customer, we build relationships which will last for a lifetime”.
Firestone TVS is the first company in India to manufacture air springs. The decision came at the right time when air springs and air suspension system as a technology started getting accepted in the Indian market. But what is unique about the Indian market is, in most global markets like US, Europe, Japan, it is the truck segment which starts adopting air suspension as a technology. In US, nearly 75 per cent of trucks are on air suspension and in Europe it is 80 per cent. In India, the usage of air suspension in trucks is just 0.1 per cent. The segment which is driving the technology in India is the Bus segment. Currently the inter-city luxury buses are mostly fitted with air suspension systems. Increasingly, city buses have also started adopting this technology.
The recent JnNURM order for 15,000 city buses, funded by the government, were all on air suspension systems and Firestone bagged the entire order for supply of air springs. Firestone is part of all major projects with Indian OEMs. The Indian market size for air springs is close to 100,000 units per annum and is doubling every 5 years with an estimated growth rate of 18 to 20 per cent growth. “But the real growth we expect to happen in India and China is when air springs penetrate into the medium and light duty applications”, Mr. Arun Kumar added.
Apart from the Indian JV, Firestone has also established its Asian Headquarters in Gurgaon, Delhi, where 6 people are employed at the moment with plans to add more. The Asian Headquarters is responsible for the business in Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian markets. Under the Asian SBU, Firestone has 2 plants – one in India and the other in China and the company has an Asia distribution centre in Singapore. The company has 2 product development centers in Asia – one in Gurgaon and the other in Beijing. The Indian plant will also cater to Firestone’s requirement in other Asian markets. The company has just started some exports out of India.
In China, Firestone currently has an assembly facility in Beijing. The company is setting up a full fledged manufacturing facility in China and operations are expected to start in a year from now.
In India, competition in the air springs business will hot up in the next few years. Apart from Firestone, Vibracoustic is setting a facility for manufacturing air springs jointly with the Sigma Group. Contitech has established a facility near New Delhi for manufacturing air springs for rail segment and this may be utlilised for the truck and bus segment as well. Gibraltar has already announced plans to set up a manufacturing facility for air springs. A few other companies are also closely looking at the Indian market for air springs.
Mr. Arun Kumar observed: “We are confident about the future growth in the Indian market. The challenge for us will be to always stay ahead in terms of technology and local support, which is manufacturing, R&D;, service. The segment where we see competition is in the lower end of the segment and aftermarket”.
