Victor Reinz to set up plant in Pune

Victor Reinz India Pvt Ltd has broken ground on a new greenfield plant at Talegaon near Pune that will produce multi-layer steel cylinder head gaskets, secondary gaskets, heat shields, and cam covers for their automotive customers in India.

This 51:49 joint venture between Reinz-Dichtungs-GmbH, a $720 million business within the $ 8.7 million Dana Corporation and the Pune-based Jayant Group was set up in 2006 to manufacture and market the German company’s entire range of sealing products under the Victor Reinz brand name in India.

The 120,000 square feet plant will come up in two phases on a five-acre plot next to General Motors’ plant in the Talegaon MIDC. The first phase, consisting of 26,000 square feet of factory area, a warehouse covering 8,000 square feet, and 10,000 square feet of office space, is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2009.

The second phase, on which construction will begin in the second quarter of 2009, will add hi-tech products like TAPS heat and noise shields, plastic cam covers with integrated air-oil separators for closed crankcase ventilation, and gasket materials and sealants in India.

The investment in the project will total Rs 40 crore, and the plant will have the capacity to manufacture two million units per year when fully functional, managing director Akash Dave told a press conference.

Reinz has 14 production locations worldwide, across Germany, Spain, the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan, and joint ventures in South Korea and Russia.

Its worldwide customers include BMW, Daimler, VW, Renault, Fiat, GM, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Porsche, MAN, Cummins, and DAF.

The Jayant Group was responsible for introducing Victor Reinz gasket technology to the Indian market in 1987. The brand has led the OE market for diesel engine cylinder head gaskets since 1997, when it introduced the now famous MLS (multilayer steel) gaskets. In 2002 it brought in the award-winning Wave Stopper technology.

Jayant presently generates revenues of €5.5 million from sales of 850,000 gaskets a year, presently supplied out of Germany. As manufacturing is increasingly transferred to the new plant, this will grow to €10.5 million by 2011 on the basis of confirmed domestic business, Dave said.

Speaking about the need to have a local manufacturing presence, Ralf Göttel, president of Dana Sealing Products Group, was careful to stress that India was more than just a competitive place to produce. For one thing, because of the high currency risk involved, the company is wary of moving material around the world.

Also, the growing internationalisation of automotive OEMs and platforms, and the trend towards increasing collaboration between OEMs requires suppliers like Reinz to be extremely flexible to be able to meet their customers’ local requirements wherever they are in the world, he said. The plant here could for example supply Cummins’ Chinese operations, or export back to Renault or Volkswagen in Europe, he added.

The company is already working with an Indian truck OEM to develop plastic cam covers with integrated oil separators for a 5-litre Euro-4 engine, Reinz managing director Franz Hieble told Autocar Professional, adding that supplies for this engine will begin in 2010.