Airbus may set up assembly line here

Bangalore: Airbus, the world’s biggest commercial aircraft maker is evaluating an Indian aircraft assembly line, its second such unit outside Europe after China, as the company seeks to reduce its production costs by at least 20-30% and serve the Indian market better.
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are two states being considered by Airbus for the Final Assembly Line (FAL), which will include around 2,600 metre long runway and facilities for painting, tests and final delivery of the plane. Depending on specific requirements and other costs, Airbus may have to invest around $600 million in establishing the facility in India and employ anywhere between 600 and 1,000 people across various processes.
The new assembly line, expected to be established within 3-4 years, will help in growing India’s commercial aviation supplier market from around $1.5 billion to almost $3.8 billion by 2014, providing more opportunities for the local aviation companies, including QuEST and Dynamatic. Chief executive Tom Enders said last month that his company will need to have production facilities in the US, China and India in order to remain competitive. Airbus, which is set to roll roll out its first China-made A320 from its assembly line in Tianjin, is seeking to reduce its production costs and globalise its manufacturing by establishing such units outside Europe. The company has three aircraft assembly units in France, Germany and China. “We currently do complex assembly sourcing from India, very similar to what we started doing in China few years ago. We believe what we did in China can be repeated here,” said Airbus head industrial cooperation projects, Dwarakanath Srinivasan.
10/06/09 Pankaj Mishra/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2009, New Jun 2009