Plastic Omnium says it will substantially increase its presence in Russia and India to capitalise on growing automotive business in both countries.
The French company’s Auto Inergy division will build a new plant in St Petersburg in 2013, to service contracts obtained recently from Nissan, General Motors and Ford.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The plant will be built by the 51%-owned joint venture created in April this year, with fuel systems manufacturer, DSK and will be the Group’s third manufacturing facility in Russia, along with the Stavrovo plant producing fuel systems mainly for Renault Dacia and the Togliatti plant, primarily supplying Avtovaz.
By 2015, the division expects to be manufacturing more than a million fuel tanks in Russia, giving it 40% of the local market.
In India, Plastic Omnium Auto Exterior, has acquired exclusive control of its joint venture in Pune, after buying out the 40% stake held by local partner Varroc. The Pune plant supplies bumpers to General Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Volkswagen.
Plastic Omnium Auto Inergy operates two plants in India, one of which is majority-owned alongside Maruti Suzuki.
The division recently won an order to supply the first plastic fuel tanks to Hyundai in India, after being awarded a similar contract by Toyota in Ranipet, near Chennai.
The so-called ‘BRIC’ countries already account for 10% of consolidated revenue and the Group is maintaining its objective of raising that percentage to 20% by 2015.
