Fomas group's Indian subsidiary Bay Forge is scaling up its Indian business of open die forgings and seamless rolled rings for aerospace, thermal and nuclear power generation, oil and gas, and defense.
Bay Forge, based in Chennai, plans to invest Rs 125 crore through to 2012. As part of expansion, it recently started up at its plant in Kanchipuram District a 2,000-tonne forging press to increase capacity for open die forgings. The plant is also equipped with a 3,500-tonne press used for making larger forgings and rings.
In 2008, globally, Fomas achieved revenue of 650 million Euros divided almost equally between open die forgings and rings, its two main divisions. Of this, Bay Forge generated 22 million Euros.
Fomas Group CEO, Jascopo Guzzoni told the Economic Times, "We entered India in 1996 during difficult times. But, we continued to pour in investments as we saw huge opportunities. Bay Forge has grown to become an undisputed leader in the realm of open die forgings and large seemless rings in India.
"We are in a niche forging segment and are a pioneer in large-volume critical forgings and ring-rolling in India. We focus on very high levels of quality, high integrity of products and on-time delivery as critical parameters. We consider India and China as two big markets, where we want to expand through Bay Forge," he said.
Bay Forge serves clients like VSSC, BARC, BHEL and Siemens, Alstom power, Vatech,Triveni, Toshiba, DRDL, ASL, RCI and HAL.
A ring rolling mill is able to roll out rings of 5.5 m in dia and 20 tonnes in weight, reportedly making it one of the most powerful in the world.
Bay Forge managing director, Nicola Boletta, told ET, "We are here on a long-term basis. We intend reaching an overall capacity of 14,000 tonnes for the year with plans to almost double up open die forging and rings capacities." The Chennai plant employs 250+ people.
Although the global financial crisis has impacted all markets world-wide, the group is confident that its focus on quality, innovation, and technology would assist it to stay ahead. "Worldwide the necessity for energy and power generation is still ever demanding, particularly in India, which is a fast-growing market," said Bay Forge deputy managing director, Nandan Mehta. He stated tht the Indian market for open die forgings is in excess of 80,000 tonnes.