INA Bearings (div. Schaeffler Group, Germany) has begun an expansion program which will double its manufacturing capacity there by 2008.

Following groundbreaking early last month, a new bearing manufacturing facility is going up in Pune's Tal. Dabhade MIDC industrial park. Currently, INA's only manufacturing operation in India is nearby in the Pune area, a leased plant in Mulshi Taluca Indo-German Technology Park. It produces automotive-size needle roller bearings.

Hans Jurgen Goslar, Schaeffler Group CEO, at the groundbreaking ceremony, sad the new facility will not only produce bearings for the fast-growing markets in India but will also have exports on its agenda from the start.

Mr. Goslar said, "India is an economic region with future potential is of prime importance to us. The good experience we have had with our existing plant in Pune as well as qualified and motivated skilled labor and competitive costs were decisive factors in choosing this new location."

Pune is also the center for most of India's transportation industry, including manufacturing and R&D facilities.

Although INA has had a direct presence in India since 1990, it has only been manufacturing bearings there since 2002.

Once the new Pune bearing factory is up and running -- targeted for 2008 at full capacity -- INA said it will terminate the Mulshi facility's lease and consolidate its operations into the new plant.

INA has budgeted approximately Rs1.5 billion (USD $34 million) for the new facility, which is targeted to employ more than 400 people by 2008.

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