Mahindra Auto Steel opens its seventh service centre in India

Mahindra Auto Steel, a subsidiary of Mahindra Intertrade and a Mahindra Group company, has opened an automotive steel processing facility in the auto belt of Chakan, near Pune, Maharashtra.

The state-of-the-art facility is a joint venture with China Steel Global Trading Corporation, Taiwan and Mitsui & Co. (Asia Pacific), Singapore. While Mahindra Intertrade holds 51% in the JV, the other partners hold 24.5% each.

The facility, spread across 10 acres, has been set up at a cost of Rs 110 crore in Phase I, with an annual processing capacity of 100,000 tonnes. This plant is the seventh steel service centre in the Mahindra Intertrade family, its third in the Pune region, and its third automotive steel processing facility.  The unit is constructed in accordance to IGBC’s Green Building norms, and incorporates features such as enhanced indoor air quality, treatment of non-process waste water and rain water harvesting.

Equipped with a state-of-the-art blanking line from Fagor Arrasate of Spain, India’s first servo line, this facility will offer automotive customers in the Pune region the entire bouquet of services such as sourcing, warehousing, yield optimization, forex risk management and SKU-wise JIT delivery and products such as blanks, trapezoids and profiles.

Speaking at the launch announcement, Harsh Kumar, managing director, Mahindra Intertrade, and member, Group Executive Board, M&M, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to announce commencement of operations at our new plant in Chakan. This world-class facility located in the automotive hub of Chakan, and backed by the highest quality steel from our partners, would help redefine the automotive steel supply chain model in the region.”

“Any international/domestic OEM in the Chakan-Talegaon belt is our customer. Logistics in the steel business is one of the major factors and our proximity to the major OEMs will be of great help,” said Harsh Kumar. When probed about the possibility of the Chakan-based GM India being one of its customers, Harsh Kumar added, “GM will be offered a value proposition, something they will not be able to refuse.”

Yi-Jen Kuo, managing director, China Steel Global Trading India, said: "China Steel Corporation Group has been at the helm of developing high-end steel products such as automotive steel since 1995. India is one of our key markets for automotive steel owing to the growth potential of the automobile industry. Through our strategic alliance with Mahindra Intertrade and Mitsui & Co, we are confident of providing manufacturers in India with the highest quality products and services, and in turn contribute towards this rapidly developing industry.”