Sundaram-Clayton Ltd (SCL), part of the TVS Group, on Thursday opened its new foundry at Oragadam, near Chennai with an investment of more than ₹150 crore.

The new facility, which was inaugurated by Young Key Koo, Managing Director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, has been established to meet the growing demand from the automotive industry.

The foundry, which will have a capacity of 8,000 tonnes, will primarily serve Hyundai Motor. It can produce machined castings ranging from 1.9 kg to 7.2 kg, according to a statement.

“This facility reinforces our drive to serve our customers by cutting down supply times because of the proximity to their factories which gives us a competitive edge. This is a critical advantage given the lean inventory management of our customers who want the supply chain to be agile,” said Lakshmi Venu, Joint Managing Director of SCL.

SCL is confident of maintaining growth as it expects Indian automotive market to see robust growth.

With fuel-efficiency improvements being important to the Indian market, aluminium components are expected to play a key role in supporting OEMs to meet their consumers’ expectations.

The new capacity expansion is a part of SCL’s strategy to partner in the light-weighting of their customers’ vehicles, both with R&D capability and a responsive supply chain.

As a leading manufacturer of machined aluminium castings, SCL now produces more than 50,000 tonnes of castings annually for the passenger car, commercial vehicle and two-wheeler segments.

In early 2017, the company announced ₹750 crore domestic-cum-overseas expansion plan. In domestic market, it plans to increase its capacity to 70,000 tonnes. It operates factories at Padi, Oragadam and Mahindra World City in Chennai, and one plant in Hosur.

The company ended 2017-18 with a total income of ₹1,767 crore against ₹1,592 crore in the previous fiscal.

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