The Hindu : Business : Leyland ties up with ANG

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Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006

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Business

Leyland ties up with ANG

Staff Reporter

The company places Rs. 1,800-crore five-year order for trailers

— Photo: V. Sudershan

TRACKING TRAILERS: Chief Operating Officer of Ashok Leyland, Vinod Dasari (left), exchanging documents after signing an agreement with the Managing Director, ANG Auto, Premjit Singh, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Ashok Leyland on Tuesday tied-up with ANG Auto Tech for manufacturing and supplying tractor-trailers.

"Customers have been demanding fully built tractor-trailers from us. So we have decided to go-ahead with the proposal and have already placed a five-year order worth Rs. 1,800 crore with ANG Auto Ltd. for manufacturing tractor-trailers for us,'' said Ashok Leyland's Chief Operating Officer Vinod Dasari.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Dasari said the subsidiary of ANG Auto would invest Rs. 61 crore for setting up a plant at Sitarganj in Uttaranchal by October to manufacturer 6,000 units annually. "The biggest advantage to the customer will be that he will get an Ashok Leyland-branded fully-built tractor trailer instead of waiting for months to deploy his tractor-trailer on the road.''

Stating that Ashok Leyland was the market leader in this segment, Mr. Dasari said the tractor-trailer market had doubled during the past one year with 800-1,000 units being sold every month.

ANG would manufacture trailers in technical collaboration with FUWA Engineering of China, ANG Auto Managing Director Premjit Singh said. He said there was a shortage of standard international quality trailers in the market. This tie-up would ensure greater availability of tractor-trailers in the Indian market, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dasari said Ashok Leyland was looking at the possibility of manufacturing light commercial vehicles. "We are talking to three to four foreign companies to help in our foray in the LCV segment.''

Hoping that Ashok Leyland's sales would see an increase of 15-20 per cent in the current fiscal, Mr. Dasari said that last year the company manufactured 65,000 units and in 2006-07 this figure was likely to go up to 75,000 units. "We will be expanding capacity to one-lakh units in the next two years, besides spending Rs. 1,000 crore this fiscal on capital works, including partial funding for a new truck plant," he added.

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