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Chennai-based Powergear Ltd has formed a joint venture with Gestamp of Spain.
The joint venture will invest Rs 150 crore to put up a facility for the manufacture of wind towers. The two partners share equity in 60:40 ratio.
The plant of Gestamp Powergear Windsteel is coming up on 20 acres in the Sri City industrial estate, some 60 km North of Chennai.
Gestamp is a €5 billion company that is into a variety of businesses, but mainly in the supply of cut and pressed sheet metal forms to the automotive industry.
Powergear is a Rs 140-crore company that makes electrical equipment, such as busducts, and has among its customers, big names such as GE, Mitsubishi Electric, Siemens, ABB and Alstom.
Mr Javier Imaz Rubalcaba, CEO, Gestamp, told Business Line today that Powergear was recommended for a joint venture partner by GE, which, incidentally has placed orders for 130 wind towers on Gestamp Powergear Windsteel.
The upcoming plant at Sri City, expected to be operational by December, can produce 400 towers a year, worth in the market about Rs 500 crore.
Mr X. Durairaj, an awardee of CII Tamil Nadu Business Line Emerging Entrepreneurs Award, said that as a thumb rule, a capacity addition of 2,000 MW would call for 1,200 towers.
Powergear takes two steps into wind power business.
One is the joint venture with Gestamp. The other is the commencement of production of wind busbars (devices used to carry very large currents, or to distribute current to multiple devices within switchgear or equipment) that are used in windmills, under a GE licence, Mr Durairaj said.
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