India continues to be a key growth market for GKN

GKN Driveline continues to grow at a rapid pace in India. In the last twelve months, GKN Driveline has broken ground on a new facility in Pune and opened a precision forge at Oragadom near Chennai. With this expansion, GKN Driveline remains close and accessible to its customers in India. With the completion of this project, GKN Driveline expects an increase of 20pc employment in India, i.e. total 1200. Currently GKN Driveline employs 1000 people at three CVJ systems factories in India; Faridabad and Dharuhera, near Delhi in the north and Oragadam, near Chennai, in the South. The 8,000-square-metre facility at Pune, a INR130 crores factory, will employ more than 200 people and is strategically located within 30km of a number of major GKN Driveline customers including Fiat, Volkswagen, GM, Tata Motors and Renault. The new plant will be fully operational in September 2012 with an annual production capacity of 1.2m CVJ systems. Ravindra Ojha, Managing Director of GKN Driveline, India noted, “GKN Driveline has posted an annual growth rate of more than 15pc over the past five years in India and is clearly a critically important market for the company.”