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Amara Raja Batteries Ltd plans to significantly expand capacity for its two-wheelers, automotive batteries and for various industrial applications, even as it steps up exports to countries in the Indian Ocean Rim and West Asia.
Ramachandra Galla, Chairman, said: “The two-wheeler battery manufacturing capacity of 11 million units per annum is likely to hit capacity constraint by the current fiscal end, and we would need to plan for capacity addition to meet future requirements.”
In order to meet the requirement of supplies to Original Equipment Manufacturers, and also the aftermarket, the company is considering another manufacturing plant with a capacity of over 11 million units per annum, more than doubling the current installed capacity for two-wheelers. Speaking at the company’s second manufacturing base in Chittoor (the other one is located close to Tirupati also in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh), Galla said the company would have to plan at least 18 months ahead to meet the requirement for two-wheelers, which would hit full capacity later this year.
Last fiscal, the company invested ₹550 crore and is planning a capex of ₹600 crore in 2015-16.
Responding to a query, Galla said the Amara Raja Group is aiming at a turnover of $1 billion (about ₹6,200 crore) by the next financial year. Its business spans batteries, food processing, electronics and plastic moulding.
Other locations
With both the manufacturing plants located in South, the company is also evaluating couple of locations in North and Western India for setting up a plant. However, no decision has been taken on this as yet, he said.
The second largest batteries manufacturing company in the country has recently commissioned a 3-million-units per annum automotive battery plant, which has capacity to further increase it to 8 million units per annum. With the new three million unit per annum automotive battery plant, the current installed capacity has touched 10 million units per annum of automotive batteries.
The company’s plants located in two industrial complexes together have more than 90 per cent capacity utilisation.
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