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T. Murrali

Chennai, June 1 Korean auto component manufacturer, Sam Shin Precision Industry Company Ltd (SSPICL), is setting up a plant to manufacture ‘semi auto clutch’ for passenger cars.

These products will be sold in the after market.

Semi auto clutch enables driving of cars without pressing clutch pedal, eventually reducing stress and improving fuel economy.

“You can keep your left leg on the dashboard and drive,” said Mr Chang Gun Lim, Chairman, SSPICL. He told Business Line that the 70:30 joint venture between Sam Shin Precision and Hand in Hand Inc, which is the inventor of semi auto clutch mechanism, has been established in India under the name Samtek Auto Private Ltd.

The company will invest $500,000 (Rs 2 crore) initially to set up an assembly plant in Chennai.

“We are looking at pre-built sheds to assemble CKD kits imported from Korea.

“In less than two years we will manufacture the complete product here. “Eventually we will shut our operations in Korea due to high operational costs,” he said.

Samtek Auto will introduce two variants of semi auto clutch — cable and hydraulic operated. According to him, the unit can be fitted to all models of cars available in India.

According to Mr Lim, the product will help improve 5-10 per cent fuel efficiency, “as fuel wastage during half-clutch driving, especially during traffic snarls, will be reduced”.

Compared with automatic transmission, the semi auto clutch, which will be retailed at $400 (Rs 16,000), will be 20-25 per cent more fuel efficient. (In comparison, an automatic transmission car — which gives almost similar level of comfort to the driver — costs Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh more.)

Sam Shin Precision currently sells around 1,200 units a year in Korea besides exporting to Iran, China and the UK.

In 2007 the group registered a turnover of $7 million.

Before the Korean passenger car market shifted to automatic transmission in the year 2000, the company was selling more than 12,000 units a year, he said.

Since the market for this product is dropping in Korea, it planned to enter emerging markets and India was the obvious choice.

Sam Shin Precision already has a joint venture company called JJ Glastronic in Bangalore to make glass metal seals, terminals for compressors, glass pillars for cathode ray tubes and sensor parts for Texas Instruments.

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