Exclusive: ACMA to Start Export Clusters to Supercharge Component Exports

The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) is starting dedicated export clusters to help Indian auto component manufacturers expand their overseas business, President-designate Sriram Viji has revealed exclusively to Autocar Professional.

The initiative will see ACMA extend its established cluster approach specifically to exports, working with groups of component manufacturers to identify and address gaps ranging from quality and production to technology and overseas market access.

“We’re going to start cluster programmes specifically for exports,” Viji, who is also Managing Director of Brakes India, told Autocar Professional at ACMA’s 66th Annual Convention.

“This will be helping companies identify gaps in their quality, production, product technology and process technology. But even to the extent of market gaps,” he said.

Importantly, work has already begun. “The clusters have already started. So we already have an export cluster signed up,” Viji said, adding that more details on the programme would follow.

The export clusters will build on ACMA’s experience of running cluster programmes in areas including quality and sustainability. According to Viji, a typical cluster brings together around 10 to 12 companies that do not directly compete, allowing them to work with a cluster leader in a shared problem-solving environment.

For exports, however, the scope will go beyond manufacturing. Viji said the programme would cover the entire export chain, including market gaps, establishing marketing capabilities in target markets and developing customer relationships.

The initiative comes as India’s auto component industry looks to leverage new free trade agreements and opportunities created by global supply-chain diversification. Viji cautioned that converting these opportunities into business would take time.

“Exports is a long game,” he said, pointing to the years of work on quality, consistency and customer relationships required to secure overseas contracts.

ACMA expects the new export clusters to begin producing tangible results over the next one to two years.

Watch the full conversation with Sriram Viji in the video below.