The Hindu Business Line : Tatra Trucks joins hands with Fainsa for seating systems

TATRA Trucks India Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between the Czech-based Tatra AS and Vectra, is in the process of setting up a new unit for manufacturing seating systems for vehicles in a technical tie-up with the Spanish company Fainsa.

According to Mr Rakesh Jinsi, Managing Director, Tatra Trucks India, "The new unit, which is coming up in Hosur, will make seating systems for luxury buses, trains and other vehicles. The unit is likely to be up by October this year and will have a capacity of 2,50,000 units per year."

The company has also finalised plans to enter the on-road, multi-axle commercial vehicles segment in India.

According to Mr Jinsi, the product expansion should happen by the end of the year with the launch of several variants. The first truck to be launched is likely to be in the 25-tonne segment.

In India, Tatra currently has off-road, high tonnage trucks as its mainstay.

At present, it has sizeable spare capacity at its Hosur plant that will come into use once the on-road vehicles are launched. The plant has a capacity to make 2,000 trucks per annum on a single shift basis, while Tatra sold about 130 trucks in India last fiscal.

Incidentally, the company has also been in talks with Volkswagen for some time now to lease out some of the idle capacity at the Hosur plant. Volkswagen officials are learnt to have visited several facilities in India including Tatra's and is in the process of shortlisting a unit to commence assembly of its commercial vehicles in India.

Tatra Trucks said that it had made net profit in 2003-04, and was targeting to sell 200 trucks in the current fiscal. The company had started an engine production line and cabin assembly line at Hosur plant last year.

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