With the Chinese and Indian truck markets poised for rapid expansion in the near future, ArvinMeritor is positioning itself to take advantage of the opportunities that will be presented.
The company opened a new technical center in Bangalore, India, to lead ArvinMeritor’s advanced product development initiatives for its axle and brake production in Asia Pacific. The facility will also support engineering needs in North and South America and Europe, the company said.
“Growth in Asia Pacific, particularly India and China, is a key component of our business strategy,” said Tim Bowes, vp and managing director for Asia Pacific. “To support the growth we have planned in this region, we identified the need to increase the size of our engineering footprint in India – which was established more than ten years ago. This new engineering center accelerates our ability to provide advanced product solutions for on- and off-highway, bus and coach, military and other industrial applications.”
Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director of Bharat Forge Limited, and Kevin Thieneman, Indian Country Manager, Caterpillar Asia, were among the guest speakers at a grand opening ceremony for the approximately, 20,000-sq.-ft. facility, 16,000 of which will house the Bangalore Technical Center. The center will employ about 100 people.
The expansion of truck sales in Asia is being led by China, which is having a robust year already.
“China has become the colossal commercial vehicle market today,” Ken Vieth, ACT Research partner and senior analyst, told Fleet Owner. “China has slowly worked its way into a 600-lb. gorilla. There used to be three 600-lb. gorillas, North America, Europe and Japan. Now China is bigger than them all.”
According to Machinist.in, ArvinMeritor has been involved in India for more than 30 years, and the addition of the Bangalore facility will not be the end of the expansion in the country as the company is hoping to find an additional facility to bring in even more testing equipment.
“We are already working with a developer here to identify a facility of about 20,000 sq.ft. where we are going to expand the testing capabilities which includes dynamometer rigs for axles and brakes, hub testing, road load data acquisition and hydraulic rigs for vertical fatigue and side skid,” said Nagaraja Gargeshwari, Engineering Director and Site Manager of ArvinMeritor's Bangalore Technical center, told Machinist.in.
