SFL sets up foundry unit in China

Sundram Fasteners Ltd., a TVS Group company, has strengthened its presence in China by setting up a foundry unit at Zhejiang.

The foundry unit is a backward integration effort by its ₹250-crore revenue China subsidiary, Sundram Fasteners (Zhejiang) Ltd.

The 10,000-tonne unit has been set up with an investment outlay of ₹100 crore. SFL was the first Indian engineering firm to set up a production unit in China many summers ago.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, SFL Chairman Suresh Krishna said both countries could not afford to ignore their increasing business relationship amid the border skirmishes. Arundathi Krishna, joint managing director, SFL, said attrition was an issue in China.

The problems were less for SFL due to labour welfare measures, she added.

The company reported a 21.6% jump in its revenue to ₹962.22 crore for the quarter ended March 2018. The net profit stood at ₹95.22 crore (₹87.66 crore). Arathi Krishna, managing director, said that the product offerings of the company had become well diversified.

Exuding optimism, she, however, said, “we have to live with lot of competition.”

Going forward, the market for SFL products would be increasingly global, she said. Both Ms. Arathi and Mr. Krishna said that times were exciting for the automobile industry and SFL.

To a question, Ms. Arathi said that the capex of the company averaged between ₹200 and ₹300 crore. This will continue, she added.

‘No smooth road for EVs’

On developing EVs (electric vehicles), both Ms. Arathi and Mr. Krishna felt that there were too many glitches on the way and would be a long drawn out process.

Later in an informal chat, Mr. Krishna, who is also the chairman of TVS & Sons, admitted that there were some discussions within the group on royalty payment by group firms for using the TVS brand name.

He added that this was still at an idea stage.