The Hindu Business Line : Ashok Leyland targets $100-m exports

HEAVY commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland Ltd hopes to register an export earning of $100 million in the current fiscal. In 2003-04, the company earned an export income of $60 million, according to Mr R. Seshasayee, Managing Director of Ashok Leyland Ltd.

Speaking to newspersons after addressing a two-day Export Summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry, Eastern Region, here today, Mr Seshasayee said Ashok Leyland had targeted a turnover of $1 billion in 2004-05.

Ten per cent of the gross turnover would be accounted by exports. The jump in exports would be spurred by the reconstruction initiatives in Iraq, which was all set to emerge as a major export destination for the company's product offerings. Already, Ashok Leyland accounts for 60 per cent of the sales of buses in West Asia.

Mr Seshasayee said the company's heavy commercial vehicle manufacturing capacity would be augmented to 67,000 units in the current fiscal and further to 75,000 units in the following year.

Commenting on the Union Steel Ministry's proposal to set up a regulator for fixing of prices, Mr Seshasayee said the issue of prices was best left to be decided by market forces. However, the Steel Ministry was well placed to take any initiative pertaining to decisions on policy matters.

On the issue of steel prices, he said the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers had taken up the issue with the Indian Steel Alliance with a view to containing fluctuations in the prices of steel required by the domestic automobile industry.

Earlier, in his address at the export summit, Mr Seshasayee said, in earlier days, exports were deemed to be an obligation that businesses had to meet to help the country generate earnings in hard currency. Now, however, companies' decisions on exports are made on business considerations.

He said it would be imperative for companies to take into account their capabilities and limitations when they try to access export markets. "What we manufacture in India may not necessarily be competitive in all its elements in markets elsewhere," he said.

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