Synergies Castings Limited,
India’s leading aluminium alloy wheel manufacturer announced the signing of an
MoU with the Government of Andhra to establish a major greenfield aluminium
casting and specialty alloy wheel manufacturing facility in Visakhapatnam,
Andhra Pradesh, India.
The MoU was signed in the
presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. This new greenfield
facility with an annual production capacity of 2.4 million wheels per year,
benchmarked at 18” wheel size will have the most sophisticated casting,
machining, painting facilities with embedded digital manufacturing technologies.
The project cost of $100 million will be financed by the existing shareholders,
accruals and bank debt.
With the auto industry poised
to see a major growth in the coming years, and the increased penetration of
alloy wheels in India, Synergies is gearing up to meet the steep demand by
increasing production capacity manifold and fulfilling the needs of its
veritable customer base.
Andhra Pradesh is emerging as a
major auto hub in the country. The state has attracted an investment of $3.7
billion (about Rs 25,000 crore) in the auto sector . The state of Andhra
Pradesh now boasts of presence of auto companies like Kia Motors from South
Korea, Isuzu from Japan, Hero Motocorp, Apollo Tyres, Bharat Forge and Brakes
India among others
This agreement with the state
of Andhra Pradesh sets the stage for building one of the largest single
location alloy wheel manufacturing projects, with intent to expand this to 5
million wheels in multiple phases. Shekhar
Movva, President Synergies Castings Limited, commented, “As customer
requirements become exceedingly more stringent, and consequent need to invest
in substantial capex for sophisticated production, testing and development
facilities, it is important to scale up and tech-up to remain competitive. While we have evaluated several manufacturing
location options in the country, we believe that Vizag, and the terms of
engagement with the state of Andhra Pradesh offers the best opportunity to be
the most competitive manufacturer of Alloy wheels in the country. Further, with the GST regime on, there is no
penalty to moving goods across geographies and thus large-scale manufacturing
makes sense.” This initiative is in sync with the Government’s push to make
Andhra Pradesh an automobile hub of the future.
Together with its ancillaries, this venture will provide more than 2000+
skilled jobs in the region.
This marks another step
forward in the strategic growth of Synergies.
Together with the ongoing expansion at the existing location, the new
greenfield plant being built in Oman, and this proposed new greenfield, the
Company is on-course to becoming a 6-million-wheel capacity company by
2022-23. “We are committed to being the
technology and market leader in India; and are investing significantly in new
casting, forming, finishing and automation technologies to retain this
leadership,” said Movva.
Synergies the pioneer and
leader in manufacturing alloy wheels in India, located in the VSEZ
Visakhapatnam, has been supplying to leading OEMs in India and overseas for
more than 17+ years now. Its wheels have
adorned several iconic vehicles such as the Hummer, the Escalade, the Jeep,
amongst others. Synergies is a globally
approved alloy wheels supplier to several automobile majors like General
Motors-USA, Ford-USA, Chrysler-USA, General Motors-India, Ford-India, Tata Motors,
Toyota, Hyundai, Fiat, Volkswagen, Honda and Mahindra & Mahindra amongst
others, and is amongst India’s leading exporters.
Source: Synergies Castings Ltd