Boeing to buy products worth $600 mn from seven Indian companies

Bangalore: American plane makerBoeing Co. will buy aerospace structures and aviation electronics products worth at least $600 million, or Rs2,941 crore, from seven firms in India as part of the so-called offsets against winning a $2.1 billion contract early in January to supply eight P-8I reconnaissance planes to the Indian Navy.
According to two persons familiar with the development, the offset contracts are being placed with Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Wipro Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd , Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Dynamatic Technologies Ltd and Macmet Technologies Ltd, a unit of Canada’s aerospace simulator maker CAE Inc. They did not share details about the contract division.
On 9 January, Boeing said the first of the P-8I, a variant of the P-8A Poseidon, the long-range marine patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, will be delivered to the Indian Navy, its first non-US customer, by 2011. The remaining will be delivered by 2015.
“Our team is working on the offset strategy and will be in touch with industry partners in a while,” said Swati Rangachari, a spokeswoman for Boeing in India. “We will concentrate in the areas of avionics (aviation electronics) and aerostructures.”
Wipro, HCL, L&T and HAL declined to comment.
Ravish Malhotra, chief operating officer at Dynamatics, confirmed that the firm had been chosen as a vendor.
A BEL executive said the firm had entered into an agreement with Boeing on the offsets contracts, but a contract was yet to be signed. “The scope of work includes supply of communication equipment, radars, electronic warfare systems and contract manufacturing,” said I. V. Sarma, director for research and development at BEL.
Boeing’s is so far the largest offset commitment for an Indian defence deal since the government mandated foreign arms makers to source at least 30% of the value of the contract of more than Rs300 crore from local firms.
01/02/09 K. Raghu/Livemint

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Categories: Air India - International Feb 2008, dian a, Foreign Feb 2009